A Dichotomy of Blood
by calliope5
Summary: Divine intervention throws two modern teens into a world they never thought they'd see, awakening some powers never before seen, and some that haven't been seen since prehistory. Only these gifts can pull Velgarth back from the brink of chaos, if the duo
1. Prologue

Authors Note:  Ok, this isn't the kind of story where there's maybe a page of set up and then whoosh! Off to Velgarth! I've taken a bit longer to set up the characters and whatnot, but I think it's worth the wait.  Just bear with me and you won't be disappointed, I promise!  Also, the chapters are pretty long, so even though there are only three up right now, it's still quite a bit of reading. Enjoy, and please review!

Prologue

            She was All. Everything that was, everywhere that had a name or no – there was She. In the beginning, when there was the earth and the void, She came and flooded the earth, filled the void. And now She just was, and She watched over Her peoples, and helped them in time of need, and there was little that She could not do. 

            Then into Her void blew a wind, a current from the East. It swirled and eddied about Her, and tickled Her and would not be ignored. So She tasted the current, and found it vaguely familiar. She drank deeper of it, and the taste of it filled Her. And She remembered.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One 

            _:I__ told you I would never leave you when I Chose you,:_ she said calmly. _:I__ knew what our bond would come to then, when I first Chose you – and I don't regret my choice. I love you, and I am proud to stand beside you. There is not a single moment together I would take back.:_

_            :Not one?: _ he asked, moved to tears.

            _:Not__ one. I will not let you face him alone, beloved…_

            Emily's focus was turned away from the well-worn book sitting in her lap as something inside her wordlessly told her to _look up_. She lifted her head and looked down the hall of Oak Park and River Forest High School. Her face broke into a grin when she saw her best friend walking towards The Spot, where she was sitting. He smiled as well and gave her a little wave, then tossed his backpack down against the wall as he reached her.

            "Hey Tom," Emily greeted him.

            "Hey babe," he responded, hugging her warmly. He pulled away and glanced at the book in her lap. "Whatcha reading?"

In response, she just held it up so that he could see the cover. It was Magic's Price, the third and final book in the Last Herald Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. "I'm at the end, the part where 'Fandes comes back and is all 'I won't let you face him alone' and stuff," she said.

            Tom's eyes lit up and he grabbed the book. "Lemme read it!" His eyes flicked swiftly back and forth across the page, reading one of both of their favorite parts. He grinned widely and handed the book back to Emily, who dog-eared the page she'd been reading and put it away. As she turned back to Tom, he saw the glint of excitement on her face that she was trying to contain.

            "What?" he asked. She looked surprised.

            "What, what? I didn't say anything."

            He gave her a Look. "You're excited about something, I can tell. So spill. What is it?"

            Emily laughed heartily. "Can't keep much from you, hey? Ok, ok, here it is. My parents are out of town for the weekend and I _finally_ convinced them that leaving me home wasn't going to cause the world to go up in flames, so I have the house, and my sister's staying with Katie."

            "That's awesome! We—…"

            "Oh, but that's not all," she crowed triumphantly. "They also left me the car, so I drove to school and I have it right now. Now, the real question is, do you really want to be here?"

The seemingly abrupt change of subject would have gone over anyone else's head, but Tom caught on immediately. He smiled and shook his head. "Do we want to wait for anyone else, though?" Usually, several more of their friends met at The Spot as well. Today, though, Emily had gotten to school even earlier than usual in order to find a parking spot, a feat comparable to transposing Mozart's Requiem into ragtime while fending off a mob of people screeching in some foreign tongue with a spoon. Tom, also, had arrived early, so they were the only two of their group of friends at school yet.

            Emily shrugged. "If you really want to, I don't really care, but I'd just as soon leave now." She sighed tiredly. "Besides, I've not been in the mood for Sarah and Amy and them lately. It'll wear off, but right now…eh." 

Unfortunately, that was an understatement. Even the mere presence of the others had been grating on her for the past few weeks, and she didn't know why. Tom was the only one she could stand for any amount of time without wanting to slap him silly. She was a little bit concerned about her growing impatience with her friends, but she had figured that it was hormones or something, so she didn't worry about it too much.

            Tom shrugged. "Fine with me. Michigan?" He was referring to the small house in Michigan that his family owned. It was right on the beach, and since it was only an hour and a half from Chicago, Tom and his friends used any excuse to sneak up there.

            "You know it! Do you have a key?"

            "No, but my parents have left for work already, so we can stop at my house and grab it, and some other stuff if we want it."

            "Cool. Let's go."

*                                  *                                  *

            "We're taking 90, right?"

            "Yeah. Don't worry, I remember the last time we took something different."

            "North…"

            Emily laughed at the reference to the time she, Tom, Sarah, and Sarah's then-boyfriend had gone up to Michigan. They'd gotten horribly, horribly lost, and had managed to turn a one and a half hour trip into a four hour one. They had all been incredibly irritated and dead on their feet at the time, but now they could look back on it and laugh. She flashed an easy grin at Tom, then turned her eyes back to the interstate that stretched out before her as she continued the joke.

            "South."

            "Right."

            "Stop sign. Five mile."

            "Hold on Osama."

            The two dissolved into laughter. They felt lighthearted and relaxed for the first time in weeks. Emily was eighteen years old and Tom was seventeen, and both were seniors in high school. Graduation was a week away, and all of the end-of-the-year stress and craziness had been taking a toll on both of them. Tom's parents had been railing at him for every little thing lately, it seemed, and Emily's parents had been smothering her. They both desperately needed a break.

            As they drove, the two talked and joked easily. Though they'd only met each other three years ago at the birthday party of a mutual friend, their own friendship had grown swiftly into something that they both considered to be significantly more than mere friendship. They weren't in love with each other – not romantically. In fact, Tom was gay, and couldn't really be attracted to women. But they did love each other immensely, and were closer than humanly possible. 

            Keeping one hand lightly on the steering wheel, Emily absent-mindedly plucked at her short hair with the other. She was tall and slender, with a figure any model would envy. She had an attractive, expressive face with eyes that morphed from blue to grey to green and back again, and her outgoing and friendly personality made it easy for people to like and trust her. However, her extremely short hair put off or intimidated most guys her age, and as a result, she didn't receive much amourous male attention. She had learned to live with it, knowing that the problem was with the guys and not herself, but it still stung, and had made her somewhat cynical towards relationships. She filled her time reading, mostly fantasy novels. Her favorite author was Mercedes Lackey, writer of The Heralds of Valdemar series. Emily had introduced Tom to the books, and now he, too, was addicted to them. And speaking of the books…

            "Hey Tom…you know how Alberich's Companion like, smuggled himself into Karse in order to Choose him?"

            "Yeah…"

            "Well, Sayvil didn't do that with Kerowyn, or Daren's Companion either. I mean, is it like, if you have Heraldic Gifts but don't live in Valdemar, does a Companion come find you and Choose you, or do they wait until you get into Valdemar, 'cause both have happened in the books."

            "Yeah, but I think Alberich was the exception. I mean, he was Karsite, and the likelihood of him ever coming into Valdemar probably wasn't very high. Unless he was, like, in battle. But you know what I mean. 'Cause think about it – there are tons of mage schools around, like White Winds, and Kethry never got Chosen. And there's the Tayledras, who have the mage-gift _and_ are pretty much guaranteed to be morally worthy 'cause the Star Eyed keeps such a close watch over them. They don't get Chosen."

            Emily thought about it for a minute, worrying her lip with her teeth. "But that implies that not only do you have to have the Gifts and be all morally worthy and crack, but that you have to be, I dunno…like, loyal to Valdemar, or be willing to become loyal to Valdemar, and like I said, Alberich was _Karsite__. _He's like, the last person who would become loyal to Valdemar, so that kinda kills that argument. Hmmm."

            Tom shrugged, out of ideas. "I dunno, maybe it's a combination of things. Maybe it's something else completely."

            "I wonder what would have happened to Vanyel if he hadn't been Chosen, but still had his Channels blasted open. I mean, 'cause for a long time he didn't want to be a Herald. I think he would have fit in with the Tayledras."

            Tom's eyes sparkled mischieviously. "He probably would have become an arrogant, pampered court mage somewhere where he could still do music."

            "Like you?" Emily mock sneered. 

            "Exactly," her friend replied smugly.

            Emily sighed dramatically. "But where would he – and you – be without Yfandes? You'd be utterly lost."

            Because of their love for the books, Tom and Emily had associated themselves with two of the main characters, a Herald-Mage named Vanyel Ashkevron, and his Companion Yfandes. The author's description of Vanyel was so identicle to Tom's own physical appearance that it was uncanny. Tom was tall and athletic, with black hair, although Emily constantly found single, oddly colored hairs among the ebony. He had a dark complexion and a devastatingly attractive face that was known to break hearts left and right. He always complained that his brown eyes were boring and ugly, but Emily thought they were a rather unusual shade of brown, more reddish. He was charismatic and charming, characteristics that chose to manifest themselves as the ability to manipulate pretty much anyone into doing pretty much anything. In a lesser man, such a talent would have been deadly. But Tom had a good heart, and he was full of compassion, and so he never used his charm to do anything seriously bad. But his appearance and personality weren't the only things Tom had in common with Vanyel. The Herald-Companion bond was so similar to Tom and Emily's that the two teenagers had decided that Vanyel and Yfandes were their alter-egos. Tom made puppy-dog eyes at Emily for her comment and squinched up his face, trying, and utterly failing, to look cute.

            "Ohhh, mon petit chou-chou, je t'adore," he cooed in a bad French accent.

            Emily just punched him.

*                                  *                                  *

An hour later, the wheels of Emily's maroon Caravan crunched over the acorn shells that littered the short driveway of Tom's Michigan House. As she had painfully learned on her first visit, traversing the driveway without shoes was a perilous undertaking. Those acorns were wicked. She eyed them with distaste as she slammed the driver side door. The sharp nuts were quickly forgotten, though, when she inhaled deeply, releasing the air in a contented sigh.

            "Oh, God, it's beautiful out," she said, stretching to loosen muscles grown restless from the drive. It was 80 degrees and sunny, and the sky was sprinkled with mare's tail clouds. In short, it was a perfect day for a not-quite-kosher visit to a beach house.

            Tom was already unlocking the front door, his day pack slung over his shoulder. Emily grabbed her own bag and headed for the open door as Tom disappeared inside, presumably to turn things on and such. 

            In the kitchen, Emily swung her bag up onto the counter and unzipped it. She pulled out a six-pack of Pepsi and one of Coke, pulled a can of Pepsi from the plastic rings, and shoved the remaining sodas into the fridge. Cracking the can open, she took a long drink of the sweet beverage. Remembering Tom, she retrieved a Coke from the fridge, then went in search of her friend.

            The gurgling sound of a toilet flushing announced Tom's whereabouts seconds before Emily popped her head out of the kitchen to see him coming down the hall from the bathroom. 

            "Hey," she said, holding the soda out to him.

            "Thanks." Tom opened his can as well and drank down half of it in one breath. He smacked his lips when he came up for air. "God, that feels good. I'm so hot." Tom held the condesation-slick can to his forehead while fanning himself with the neck of his shirt. He always felt overheated, unlike Emily, who always felt cold. 

            "You're such a pussy. We--…" Emily started to tease him.

            "A what?" Tom interupted her. She rolled her eyes and chuckled.

            "A pussy."

            "A what?"

            "A pussy."

            "A what?"

            "A pussy."

            "Oh, a pussy!"

            "ANYway," Emily said pointedly, still giggling at the long-standing joke. "If you're so hot, let's go do the creek. I've only done it once, that time at your birthday, and we can jump in the lake when we get to the end."

            "Doing The Creek" was a time-honored Michigan House tradition, one that was performed religiously, even in less-than-warm weather. There was a creek that wound itself through the woods of Grand Beach and eventually emerged on the beach itself. Tom and his friends would climb down the banks a few miles from the beach and hike the distance. Sometimes they tried to see who could stay dry the longest, or how many times they could cross the stream without getting wet. It was always fun and incredibly physically satisfying.

            "Ok. Can we drive? The place where we always start is like… kinda not close."

            "Yeah, but we come out like, a minute from here, and I really don't want to have to walk all the way back to get the car. Plus there isn't a good place to park over there."

            "Yeah, that makes sense. Ok, let's go."

*                                  *                                  *

            _Well,_ Emily thought wryly as a drop of sweat trickled down her temple, _I'm definitely not cold now. I better enjoy it while it lasts…_ The sweat itched as it made its way down the side of her dirt-smeared face, but she couldn't spare a hand to scratch it. She contemplated her surroundings and position for a moment, then made a frustrated sound at the back of her throat. _Well, crap._

            "Uh… Tom? A little help over here?" she called. Tom was still a tiny bit upstream of Emily, and she heard the rustle and snap of vegetation being broken as he approached her. Finally, she looked down to see him standing about six feet below her, gazing up at her from the bank of the creek. He had a mischievious smile on his face.

            Tom looked up at Emily's prone body. She was straddled backwards against the trunk of a large tree that perched precariously on the bank above the creek, spread eagle, clinging to the bark with her fingertips, which were beginning to look a little white with strain. Her feet were slowly losing purchase on the few crumbling inches of moist dirt that acted as a ledge. She was stretched in just a way that made movement impossible. Tom examined her for a few more moments, chuckling at her immobile state. She hadn't remembered to put pants or a long-sleeved shirt on before they had headed for the creek, so her bare arms and legs sported innumberable scrapes and scratches, and her whole body was liberally spattered and smudged with dirt and sweat. As she stood there panting with the heat and strain, she looked bedraggled, uncomfortable, slightly irritated, and incredibly edible.

            Tom burst out laughing.

            Emily glared at him.

            "As absolutely hilARious as I'm finding this," she said, her voice starting out in a sickly sweet tone, "Last time I checked, YOU still weren't in good enough shape to carry me all the way back to the house, so unless you're gonna just stand there and watch me incur some painful injury that will probably require your dubious strength, I suggest that you HELP me." She ended her tirade with a glower and a growl, but Tom could see her struggling to contain her own laughter. He sighed dramatically.

            "Alright, come on, let's get you down." He walked closer to the bank so that he was directly beneath Emily. Eyeing her position for the best strategy of moving her, he finally reached up and grabbed her by her mid-thighs.

            "Ok, let go, but don't jump. Kinda slide down and I'll keep you from falling. Hmm… can you move your feet any closer together?"

            Emily shifted her feet slightly, testing her balance. "I can try." Clutching even more tightly at the bark of the tree, she prepared to attempt to shuffle her right foot closer to her left one, unconsciously tensing every muscle in her body. She felt a small trickle of adrenaline skitter through her; not enough to set her heart pounding, but enough to jar her into action. She hastily tried to hop her right foot in towards her body, but her tightly bunched muscles overbalanced her, and she pitched forward away from the tree. Flailing out her arms, she shrieked as she tumbled down onto Tom, who let out some gibberish that sounded like fake German in a cracking voice. The two toppled over and landed with a thump on the sandy and muddy bank, a jumble of arms and legs.

            Their hearty, breathless laughter filled the air as the two friends lay on the ground, still tangled, and ignored the tears of mirth that squeezed from the corners of their eyes. When their sides started aching and the loud peals had settled down into sporadic giggles and chuckles, Emily picked herself up, wiped her hands on her dirty-beyond-repair shorts, and held it out to Tom. He took the proferred hand and hauled himself to his feet, wiping away a stray tear. They began examining themselves for injury.

            "Ow," Tom said, in a voice that clearly stated that he did care in the least. "I'm gonna be bruised tomorrow."

            "Me too, but I like, bruise by someone looking at me, so that doesn't say much."

            "Plus you're so weak, it doesn't take much to hurt you."

            "Shut up."

*                                  *                                  *

            Tom catapulted himself over a huge fallen tree that lay on its side and landed with a splash in the shallow water on the other side. He turned around just in time to see Emily, rather than go over the tree as he had, slide herself through an opening in the tree's tangled branches. He started walking again when she had gotten through and joined him. Up ahead, he could just see the bridge that meant they were nearing the beach just around a corner. 

            "Hey Em," he said. "If you could pick, would you rather be a Herald or a Tayledras?"

            "Tayledras," she said firmly with no hesitation. "The Heralds are awesome and I'd love to have a Companion – which is a really cool idea, by the way – but they're just so, like, _driven_. I mean, once they're Chosen, they're completely dedicated to Valdemar. And that'd be fine, I guess, if they still had room for like, normal relationships and stuff, but they don't."

            "Tayledras have more freedom."

            "Exactly."

            Tom chuckled. "Me too. They have more fun with their lives too. And they wear better clothes."

            Emily snorted. "Oh, yeah, I can just picture you in those long, elaborate silk Mage robes, like Firesong. You'd be even more vain than you are now."

            "Shut up. But yes. I would like Mage robes. And I'm not vain."

            "Whatever. Plus, having all that magic would be so cool. Assuming you were a Mage, of course-.."

            "…which a high proportion of Tayledras are. Dude, but the coolest spell is definetely the Gate spell. How awesome would it be to have something like that here?"

            "We could go back to Italy and skip that whole 13 hour plane ride thing."

            "God, I _know_! Seriously, that was so awful, you have no idea."

            "I'm sure I would be complaining just as much as you do if I'd been conscious for it. Yay for Dramamine, that's what I say."

            The two hadn't noticed the sky getting rapidly darker as they'd talked, but the conversation was interrupted by the loudest clap of thunder either of them had ever heard that broke right over them. It was so loud that both of them jumped, and had to grab hold of each others' arm to keep their balance. It was followed by another clap, one that ended in a low grumble that reminded Emily of her stomach.

            "Holy fuck!" Emily's curse was cut off by a sudden strong wind. It whipped the trees into a frenzy of lashing branches and plastered Tom and Emily's clothing to their bodies. They looked at each other in surprise.

            "What the fuck is going on?" Emily had to yell to be heard above the wind. Tom just shook his head.

            "I don't know, this has never happened up here before."

            Then, with another deafening clap of thunder, the skies opened up and poured down to earth. The rain came down in sheets so thick Tom could barely see five feet in front of him. The two were soaked to the skin in a matter of seconds. Remembering the bridge, Tom grabbed Emily's arm and started to run towards it, dragging her behind him.

            "There's the bridge right up there!"

            After stumbling for a few moments from being pulled so suddenly, Emily gained dubious footing in the rocky creek and jogged after Tom. Squinting, she could make out the shape of the bridge. Underneath it, they'd still be wet and in the creek, but the rain wouldn't reach them. The bridge drew closer and closer until, with a breath of relief, Tom and Emily plunged beneath its shelter and into darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Shivering slightly, Waternight pulled his _hertasi_-made cloak tighter around his wiry frame. The cloak was warm and tightly-woven, and had been worked with a light, waxy oil the _hertasi_ used to waterproof the garments they made, but no piece of clothing is ever perfect, and icy trickles of rain managed to find every crack and opening. 

            _I shouldn't even have to be wearing this cloak right now_. As if echoing the scout's thoughts, Hrill resettled himself inside the cloak's voluminous hood and grumbled against Waternight's ear. The peregrine hated rain as much as his bondmate. _The weather-workers said the skies would be clear for this run…_

            "I hope you're not brooding again. We're almost back to the Vale, and if you hate weather so much, you shouldn't have become a scout."

            Waternight peered at his partner from beneath his hood. Wingfire was wearing her rain-cloak too, but she looked as if the rain didn't bother her in the least. That was probably true, considering she hardly ever noticed weather, much less let it affect her. Indifferent to both extreme heat and cold and seemingly impervious to the elements, Wingfire was the perfect scout. Waternight fought down a small twinge of envy. Wingfire was his best friend, and the best scounting partner anyone could ask for. It wasn't her fault she just happened to be better at it than anyone else in the Vale. 

            "_Vestacha_, compared to you, everyone hates weather," he teased, his irritation already lifting. Wingfire did that to him, put him in a better mood just by being there. "Still, I don't think this weather is normal. The mages reported clear weather for this run. There shouldn't have been anything unexpected like this."

            "You worry too much, my friend. The mages are human only. They can make mistakes. This is nothing more than a spring rain. Quite normal, I'm sure. Now come, stop worrying. There's the Vale right now, and I, for one, plan on claiming the Sun Pool for a soak. Join me?"

            Waternight shook his head. "Would that I could, but Father wants to talk to me. He wants me to "develop" my Mage-sense. He _knows_ that it's small enough to be inconsequential, but he just won't give up the notion that I need it."

            "Well, you never know. It may be small, but you know that even the smallest gifts can prove vital. I agree with him. I think you should at least think about it." Wingfire clapped her friend and partner heartily on the back and grinned. "Come find me when your father is done with you. I'll find some food and we can forget all about it for a little while."

            "You're Goddess sent, you know that?"

            "Of course I am! How could you ever doubt it?"

            Chuckling, the two passed into the Vale and out of the rain. Waternight shivered slightly at the light feeling of bubbles skittering across his skin that happened every time he passed through the veil. His father had told him that he could feel it because of his Mage-sense. At the thought of his father, the scout sighed heavily and trudged away in the direction of Stormcall's _ekele_.

            Wingfire watched him go for a moment, then turned away and followed a different path. She unconsciously headed down a trail lined with grey stones that designated it as leading to the common areas of the Vale, pacing the well-known path that would lead her to her favorite soaking pool. She finally reached the secluded spot and brushed aside a curtain of vines, grown there by the _hertasi_ to provide some sort of privacy should the pool's occupants want it. Right now, however, the pool was empty. She stopped at the pool's steaming edge, quickly stripped off her garments, and slid into the hot water without so much as a ripple.

            Like most Vales, the _hertasi_ had carved seats and benches of varying height into the basin of the pool. Wingfire scooted around the perimeter until she found one she liked, then settled back with a deep, contented sigh. The water came up to just under her collarbone. She closed her eyes and reveled in just sitting, staying in one place and being completely relaxed. Every time she left the Vale, she was on guard, like all scouts should be. Relaxing one's guard could – and had – end up in one losing one's life. Therefore, Wingfire was at least slightly tense most of the time. As she fully relaxed for the first time in Goddess-knew-how-long, a wave of exhaustion swept over her.

            When she had officially reached saturated prune status, Wingfire lazily reached up and untied the thong that held her waist-length hair in a tight braid. She was one of the few scouts who didn't wear their hair the typical shoulder-length, and she liked it that way. Her brother, Sunsong, wore his hair the exact same length. The two had always been close, despite Sunsong being three years Wingfire's junior. They had liked to dress alike as children, and had taken enormous pleasure out of confusing the adults about their identity. However, once adolescence had caught up with Wingfire, she had gained almost a foot in height over her younger brother, and her body had begun to grow feminine curves. With those rather conspicuous additions, the siblings' days of playing twins were over. Wearing their hair the same length was the way they kept a light hold on their younger, carefree days, and reminded each of the other. Wingfire had conceded to the scout's camouflage, however, by dyeing her hair to blend into the forest, while Sunsong's locks were as white-silver as ice. Right now, her hair was a motley arrangement of reddish browns and the like to make her invisible against the autumn foliage. She examined her hair as she combed her fingers through it and watched it float in the water. _Hmm… dye's getting a little faded. I should redo it within the next few days._

            The sound of light footsteps approaching the pool broke her train of thought, and she looked towards the entrance to see who was coming. The vine-screen was pushed aside to reveal a devastatingly attractive young mage framed in the last rays of the setting sun. That was how this particular pool had gotten its name – when the sun set, the clearing was filled with its rays, which gave the lighting a distinct reddish glow. It was really quite striking – though at this moment, it was competing with the picture the young man struck. His waist-length hair was ice-white, the top half tied back and the rest hanging loose, though it was currently devoid of adornment. He wore robes in a velvety dark blue silk, which were cut exotically and showed off his impressive figure. Unlike many mages, he excercised his body just as much as his mind, and it showed. He squinted against the sun to see who was in the pool, then grinned warmly when he saw it was Wingfire. She in turn smiled back and waved him over.

            "Well met, brother! I should have known to expect you, with a sunset such as this one."

            Sunsong shed his robes as he walked towards the pool, then plunged into the water, only to pop back to the surface next to his older sister. He liked his water _hot_, and didn't mind completely submerging himself in water most would consider too hot for that sort of thing. 

            "You know me too well. How was your run? That little fall sprinkle didn't send my big tough sister to the Sun Pool, did it? Weather doesn't usually bother you."

            "Oh, that's not why I'm here. Or at least, not the only reason – I _am_ human, you know. No, actually, I just haven't had a chance to really relax in a while, and I decided that I deserved it. What's your excuse?" she teased.

            Sunsong stretched slowly before answering, a few of his muscles and joints popping. "I'll have you know that I ran that course the _dyheli_ set up several times today, in addition to my usual lessons, so I was working my body _and_ mind. So ha. Truth be told – I'm beat, sister mine."

            "Alright, we _both_ deserve this soak. There. Since you mention it, how's your training coming along? You must be – what – near Adept level by now."

            "Almost. I've been training under Earthlight, and she's the best we have. We worked on Gates today, and before you ask, no, that is _not_ what caused the rain, though I must admit, it was pretty unexpected. Actually, we were just working on recognizing Gate energies, how to work with them, etc. etc. Mostly theory, really. There'll be a bunch of that before I actually build a Gate myself. That's the test for Adept status – successfully building a Gate by myself."

            "Do you know how long you'll have to do theory stuff before you'll be ready for the real thing?"

            Sunsong shrugged. "Eh. It varies from mage to mage, obviously, but it generally takes a few months of intensive study and that sort of thing." He reached out and tweaked a lock of Wingfire's hair. "And what about you? Anything new with you or Waternight?"

            "Not much new with me, but Waternight is with Stormcall right now – again." Her brother nodded knowingly. "I mean, I know his Mage-sense barely exists as it is, but it can still be useful, but he doesn't see the point in developing it."

            "Well, to what extent does he have it?"

            "He can't manipulate energies or anything, but he can see and feel them. Actually, sometimes I feel kind of bad for him – it must be so frustrating to see a… a tool, I guess, that you know is useful, but that you can't use." She shrugged. "It doesn't seem to bother him, though. He doesn't really care about magic one way or the other. He knows it has its uses, but he doesn't see how he personally fits into that. I think he figures that he should just stick to what he knows and is good at – scouting."

            "I guess I can see his reasoning in that, but you have a point as well." Sunsong tugged fondly at the lock of hair he was holding. "Well, let us hope that he comes to some sort of conclusion in this dilemma of his, hmm?"

*                                  *                                  *

            "Father, I know that magic is useful, but that's just it – it's useful for the _Mages_. I know how important their work is. I am Tayledras, after all. I know that we use it to restore the Uncleansed Lands. Yay magic! But my own gift is small enough to be practically nonexistent, so why waste time that I could be using honing the skills that I really need, skills I use every day? I just don't see the point."

            Stormcall gazed fondly at his son and supressed a smile. True, this was a frustrating subject for the two, as they threw the same reasoning at each other every time, neither getting anywhere. But Stormcall was proud that his son at least had sound reasons for his case, even if he didn't agree with them. At least he wasn't like a few people the older Hawkbrother could mention, who blindly refused to believe that magic wasn't the answer to everything. Still, it seemed foolish to him that a Tayledras – a _Tayledras_ – who lived and breathed magic in their very existence and purpose, would refuse to develop his Mage-gift, however small.

            "Son, I know that your gift is minor. I'm not asking you to give up scouting, dress yourself in robes, and prance around pretending to be a Mage. All I'm asking is that you let me give you a few lessons in being more aware of your gift, letting it feed you more information. You'd be surprised at how much it can tell you, even latently."

            "But -.."

            "Here, take me for example. What am I?                       

            Waternight sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes. "You are k'Sheyna's Mage-Scout Liason."

            "Exactly. The reason such a position exists is to keep information flowing smoothly between the two groups. The scouts and the Mages are two of the most important elements of the Vale, because they both provide vital information to its occupants."

            "Father, I know all this…"

            "Just let me finish. Imagine it this way. If you allow your sense to develop, you may notice subtleties that other scouts would miss. That data may prove lifesaving to the Vale. However, if you ignore your gift, you would be depriving k'Sheyna of a potentially essential resource."

            Waternight didn't respond immediately, but he looked like he had just accidentally swallowed a rather large bug, and was finding the experience highly distasteful. Stormcall mentally nodded to himself. _Good. That means he's _thinking_ about what I said, instead of just reacting like he has been. Maybe he'll see the sense in this after all._ At length, Waternight's expression changed to one of reluctant resignation.

            "Alright. I'll let you give me these 'lessons,' if it will please you. But," he raised his eyebrows  in emphasis. "That's it. I don't want you to try to weasel me into anymore magic business."

            Stormcall smiled gently. "Deal." He held out his hand, and his son grasped his wrist for a moment, then let go. "Now, since you're here, we might as well start now."

            Waternight sighed and settled into a cushion near his father. This was going to be a long night.

*                                  *                                  *

            The next day found the scouting partners up at dawn and back out on their circuit. It was raining again – or rather, still, as the rain from the previous day hadn't let up, and had even gotten heavier. The morning was quiet, however. At noon, the two decided to take to the trees for a bite to eat. Wingfire, being the expert on plants that she was, knew of a tree with a thick tangle of leaves and branches about half way up that would provide decent protection from the monotonous rain. 

            Waternight sighed as he settled his back against the huge trunk and pulled scout rations from his pack. The trees in the Pelagirs were massive – twelve men stretched fingertip to fingertip would have been hard-pressed to circle one of the giants. The branches were fully as thick as the trunk of any normal tree, and most Tayledras were as at home in the branches as they were on the ground.

            The rustle of leaves announced the presence of Hrill and Vraen, Wingfire's golden eagle, as they backwinged to a stop and perched on the branches near their bondmates. Bondbird stock tended to be fully two or three times the size of their wild counterparts, and Vraen was the largest bondbird in the Vale. For the most part, Wingfire didn't carry him if she could possibly avoid it. When the need arose, though, she had a clever perch-like contraption that could be strapped across her shoulders to hold Vraen. Windstrike, one of the Vale's engineers, had created it for her, and though he had warned her that her mobility would be severely limited while wearing the thing, Wingifre doubted she'd ever be wearing it in a situation that required full mobility. 

            She glanced at Waternight before once again concentrating on her own rations. "Why the sigh?" 

            Waternight smiled tiredly. "Just reminding myself to keep checking things with Mage-sight. I finally gave in to my father, and he wants me to look at everything with it, so I get practice and it'll come more easily to me."

            "Makes sense. See anything interesting?"

            "Hold on, let me check." Waternight set his food aside, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. His lack of training in using his gift made it necessary for him to concentrate fairly hard in order to use it. A few minutes passed as he made a mental sweep of the few surrounding furlongs. He frowned slightly, then opened his eyes. "That's odd. There are no creatures that have anything to do with magic – twisted by it, or attracted to it, or magical by nature – near here. That doesn't make any sense, they're usually fairly evenly spread out. There should be at least a few of each kind around here, but…" He shook his head in confusion. 

            "That's serious, Waternight. Can you tell where they are?" Wingfire had dropped all humor and was every inch the serious scout she had trained to be.

            Instead of answering, her partner closed his eyes again. They stayed closed for longer this time as Waternight stretched his untrained talent to its limits. Finally, he opened his eyes again.         

            "I'm not getting much specifically, but there's a definite sense of something pulling them north and a bit east."

            "Can you tell how far from here the source of the pulling is?"

            "No more than a candlemark by _dyheli_, I'd say."

            Wingfire swallowed the rest of her food quickly and started to pack her things quickly and efficiently. "Still in our sector. We're going to need some _dyheli_, then. Here, you send Hrill back to the Vale and ask for two volunteers to come meet us, and we'll start out in that direction. They'll catch up with us soon, and we'll already have a head start." She shrugged her pack back onto her shoulders and swung down out of the branches to keep watch until Waternight followed.

            :_Hrill__, go back to the Vale, tell Earthlight we found magic problems, and ask Myrvac for two volunteer mounts. Tell them its important and to come quickly.:_

            Hrill bobbed his head and chirruped in comprehension, then dove off the branch and shot off towards the Vale so quickly he was a blur. Nothing was faster than a peregrine in flight. Waternight had heard that the Guardian Spirits in Valdemar were incredibly fast, and while he doubted that they could best his bird, he had to admit that if anything could, it would be a Guardian Spirit.

            The scout whistled sharply to Wingfire, who appeared a minute later back up in the branches.

            "We should run the trees for this one," he explained to her. "We're going to need to move quickly."

            Wingfire nodded. "Right." 

            The two set off. It took each a minute or so, but once they found their rhythm, they were moving through the trees like water. Both scouts had released the climbing tools from their backs, and used the hooked ends to pull branches closer so they could jump from tree to tree with greater ease. Foliage sped by as they moved quickly and quietly towards their goal.

            They were a third of the way there when they heard the warning call of a peregrine coming in to land. They knew it meant that their mounts had arrived, so they both paused and Waternight held up his arm and braced it for Hrill's impact. The handsome peregrine backwinged sharply and landed heavily on the scout's arm. He swiveled his head and looked into his bondmate's eyes.

            :_Horned__ ones come. Tingly ones, too,:_ he said in the simple mindspeech possessed by all the birds of bondbird stock.

            Waternight raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Tingly one" was Hrill's name for a mage. 

            :_Which__ tingly ones come?_: he asked.

            :_Old__ earthy female and feels-like-Wingfire male._:

_            "Old earthy female"…that has to be Earthlight – he always comments that her mind feels earthy. And "feels-like-Wingfire male?" Who could that – oh. It must be Sunsong. Sibs tend to have a similar feel to them._

            "The _dyheli_ are here – along with two unexpected additions. It seems that your brother and his teacher accompanied our horned friends on this little jaunt."

            Wingfire rolled her eyes. "Bless the Star-Eyed, will he never learn? Sunsong is forever wanting some 'action,' as he calls it. As if playing with nodes and the Heartstone weren't action enough for him. Well, let's go meet them. We need to get there ten minutes ago."

            The partners dropped out of the tree they were in and landed in crouches on the forest floor. Four _dyheli_ were waiting patiently, two already bearing riders. Earthlight and Sunsong had had the sense to at least change out of their ridiculously impractical robes and into spare scouts clothing before leaving the Vale, and they had bound their hair to keep it out of the way.

            "At least you didn't come out here dressed as moonflowers," Wingfire stated, foregoing preamble all together.

            "Well, we'd hardly be of aid tripping all over ourselves or getting our garments pinned to trees with arrows, would we, youngling?" Earthlight's tone was light and calm with an undertone of amusement. "Hrill's message was that there was a magical disturbance, and who is there better equipped to deal with such a problem but two strong scouts to take care of the physical, and two strong mages to deal with the magical?"

            Wingfire didn't blush, but she did feel properly rebuked for her sharpness. "Apologies, elder."

            Earthlight gentled her rebuke with a smile and a waved hand. "No need. There is danger, and danger causes stress. Now, come mount up and we'll see what we can do about this problem, shall we?"

            Wingfire and Waternight swung easily up onto the thin leather pads that the _dyheli_ wore.  The deer-like creatures wouldn't tolerate a saddle, but did allow the pads to soften the blow of their sharp withers to whomever might be riding them.  As soon as both scouts had their balance, the _dyheli_ were off, springing forward with such suddeness that anyone but a Tayledras would have been left in the dirt. 

            Waternight concentrated on their destination, so used to riding _dyheli_-back that moving with the creature's movements was second nature. All of a sudden, he Felt his mind being wrenched quickly and efficiently from his control.  Before his shock could manifest itself as resistence, he heard a mindvoice in his head.

            :_Don't__ fear, I am simply seeing the place as you saw it. Then you have no need to guide us, and we get there that much faster.:_

            The _dyheli_. Of course. The scout had always known that they could take control of one's mind with great ease, but he'd never been on the receiving end of it himself.  He wasn't sure if he liked it much.  

            But the _dyheli_ was right – in no time at all, Waternight heard the warning call of his bondbird.  The other's heard it too and pulled up, knowing its meaning. The four Hawkbrothers jumped from their mounts' backs and gathered in a circle. All of them were on their highest guard, and had drawn whatever weapons they carried.  Earthlight's eyes stared off into the foliage for a moment, then snapped back to her comrades.  Sunsong caught the look of utter shock on her face for a split second before it set into grim lines.

            "Changewolves," she said shortly. "Four of them.  They have something surrounded.  I See other creatures nearby, but I'm guessing the Changewolves drove them back."

            The others matched her grim face as they heard her words.  Changewolves were wolves that had been caught in the Changecircles caused by the Mage Storms several years ago.  Many of the circles had been healed by various Vales, but a few still existed here and there. Plus, much to the dismay of the Tayledras and other peoples living on the edges of the Pelegirs, the changes wrought upon those creatuers unfortunate enough to caught in a Changecircle were often passed onto the young.  This particular variation of Changecreature was huge, fully twice the size of their already-large original form.  They had long, serrated fangs, and claws that would have been more at home on Vraen than any mammal.  And they were fearless.  They never hesitated to attack, no matter the odds. 

            And the odds were not in the favor of the Tayledras.

            "Alright," Wingfire said, taking charge of the situation. "The best strategy is for me and Waternight to take to the trees and use our bows against them while you two," she nodded at Earthlight and Sunsong. "Make a shield that will protect you from physical blows as well as magical. That way, you can get in, see what it is they're after, and perhaps rescue it, if you deem it worth rescuing."

            Earthlight shook her head. "Changewolves eat magic. Our shield would collapse the moment we created it. You can't harm them with magic. It's going to have to be done with physical weapons."

            "Damn. Then we lose our advantage." Wingfire thought furiously for a moment. "Fine, then the mages in the trees with bows, me and Waternight on the ground. Our climbing sticks should have enough reach to keep us somewhat out of their striking range." 

            The others nodded agreement and then dispersed. Sunsong and Earthlight disappeared up two trees as the scouts jogged towards the small clearing that held the Changewolves and their mysterious prey.  

            They slipped behind two trees and cautiously looked around them, assessing the situation.  For a moment, neither scout saw the two bodies lying prone in the middle of the clearing.  The Changewolves were snarling and snapping at each other, each trying to claim the bodies as its own, and none of them getting anywhere. Finally, around the flying spittle and snapping teeth, Waternight spied the two. He motioned to Wingfire to get her attention, then gestured at the bodies. She flicked her eyes in the direction he indicated, quickly taking everything in, then made a brief hand gesture that meant they would try to take care of the situation with minimum bloodshed. 

            _So we're to try and 'rescue' those two. If they're even alive…_

            Waternight turned his attention once more to the quarreling Changewolves. Their fighting was becoming more aggressive, though one of the creatures managed to fight its way over to the two bodies.  It stood over them, snapping its formidable teeth at the others as they tried to grab a share of the helpless prey.  It managed to take chunk of the hide of one other Changewolf when the interloper got too close, causing the injured one and the two remaining ones to pull back for a moment. Waternight was grateful that they hadn't yet caught the Hawkbrothers' scent.

            He decided that this lull in the scuffle was the clearest chance they would get. He caught Wingfire's eye, who Mindspoke Vraen. 

            The victorious Changewolf was snuffling wetly at the two bodies lying on the forest floor. It licked its massive chops once, drooling thick saliva onto them, then lowered its open mouth, ready to tear into the soft flesh. 

            A harsh, piercing scream rang out through the trees as Vraen dove on the Changewolf at the same time that Sunsong and Earthlight each sighted one of the other three with arrows and let fly. Sunsong's arrow found its mark – the back of the skull of one of the creatures.  It severed its spinal cord and the creature collapsed.  However, Earthlight was a bit out of practice in archery, spending most of her time keeping up the magical defenses of the Vale, and her arrow barely missed, merely ruffling the impressive mane of the huge creature. 

            Suddenly aware that they were being attacked, the two unoccupied Changewolves whirled and caught the scouts' scent. They began to stalk the two, hunger propelling their limbs.

            Meanwhile, Vraen had bound his talons to the skull of the Changewolf that stood over the two bodies. He was raking bloody furrows in its scalp while beating at its face with his massive wings, trying to confuse it. It was working, but the predator was still standing over the bodies, and kept coming perilously close to stepping on them and injuring them with its razor sharp claws. Keeping one eye on the approaching Changewolves, Wingfire noticed the danger and called to Vraen.

            :_Vraen__! Injured bird! Bring evil one away from hurt ones!:_

            Immediately, the golden eagle let go of the Changewolf's scalp and flapped a short distance away. He circled, just out of reach, screaming a challenge at the monstrous creature. The Changewolf snarled at the bird and leapt after him. It sprang into the air, trying to reach Vraen, who was mocking it mercilessly.  The beast missed, but Vraen sliced into its nose as it tried to grab him out of the air.  Moving stealthily and subtly away from the bodies lying in the foliage, Vraen slowly led the increasingly furious Changewolf out of the clearing.

            The absence of one Changewolf was of little comfort to the two scouts, however, who barely had time to brace themselves before the remaining two beasts charged.  Fortunately, Changewolves were solitary creatures, so teaming up against the scouts never crossed their small minds.  The one that had barely escaped being skewered by Earthlight's arrow chose Wingfire as its target, while the remaining one focused on Waternight, forcing the two scouts from each others' sides.  

            The one on the left barreled towards Waternight at full speed, its claws churning the saturated earth to mud.  The scout was in an awkward position, between a large tree and a wall of dense underbrush, and quickly realized that he'd have little to no mobility where he was.  He quickly backed into the brush, pushing himself deeper than he'd like into the foliage.  The Changewolf followed, snarling hungrily.

            Wingfire faced the remaining beast and swiped rainwater out of her eyes, muttering a curse under her breath at the inopportune weather.  She balanced lightly on the balls of her feet and gripped her climbing tool in her hands, watching closely for any move the Changewolf might make.  It was currently facing her, snarling and snapping, making short rushes and then aborting them.  Wingfire was careful to keep herself between the monster and the two unmoving beings on the forest floor.  Quick as a snake, she lunged forward and slashed out with her weapon, moving the wickedly curved blade so quickly it was a blur.  She had underestimated the Changewolf's reflexes, however, and quickly jumped back as the beast dodged her blow and tried to strike her with its long, serrated claws.  A few more tries and misses made Wingfire pull slightly back, still guarding the bodies, and reevaluate the situation.  The monster was watching her as closely as she was watching it, and it was fast.  She'd need to distract it somehow. 

            :_Earthlight__,: she mindspoke.  :__Can_ you shoot at it, but not hit it? Just distract it._:  She felt the mage's assent as a quick mental nod, rather than in words.  Readying herself, she edged closer to the drooling creature.  She knew she'd have one chance to attack, and a very short time span in which to do it.  Hawkbrother bows were silent, and were designed to conveniently lack the tell-tale twang of a bow being released, but the scout's listening ears heard the whisper-soft hiss of the arrow through the air, and exploded into action before the arrow even reached its destination. _

            It was a purposeful miss – it whizzed past the Changewolf's nose, causing the creature to turn its attention away from the whirlwind that was Wingfire for one deadly second.  While its attention was diverted, Wingfire leapt and brought the pointed tip of the blade down into the creature's skull with all of her strength.  The force was so great that it crushed the thick bone, and the Changewolf dropped to the ground with a wet, sickening thud.  

            Breathing heavily and still clutching her weapon, Wingfire started towards the two figures laying in the steadily deepening mud.  As she lowered herself into a crouch beside them, she felt one, then two, then three light mindtouches, and acknowledged them with return touches of her own.  Her three companions joined her, and together they looked down at what they'd just risked their lives to save – if they were even still alive.

            Surprisingly, they were.  Ignoring their faces, Sunsong did a quick examination of their bodies, dipping his othersight briefly into them to check for internal injuries.  When he was finished, he faced his companions.

            "Nothing too serious," he reported.  "Mainly bruises and shallow cuts and scrapes, nothing internal.  Looks like we got here before the Changewolves had time to do any further damage.  But… they're out cold, and it's deeper than just unconsciousness.  I felt something… off, but somewhat familiar.  Earthlight, I'd like you to take a look.  It feels like something I know, but I can't quite place it."

            She nodded, then closed her eyes to better concentrate on the task.  Reaching out, she touched each body lightly.  An immediate crease appeared between her eyebrows, and she frowned slightly.  She went deeper still, and her body went slack for a moment when she identified what Sunsong had felt.  Coming out of the othersight, she stared absently at the body on the right before starting, and turning back to the others. 

            "Star Eyed… Sunsong, I'm not surprised that you didn't recognize it, but that it was familiar to you."  She took a deep breath.  "These two… they have traces – strong traces – of Gate energies in them.  But it's not a Gate that opened here.  The best way I can describe it is that a Gate opened somewhere very, very far away.  Farther even than the Salten Sea."  The others gaped at that piece of information.  "Someplace not only very, very far, but very, very different.  I caught flashes of it… I can't even begin to describe what I saw, but the images were very brief.  Anyway, the Gate that opened there dropped them here, but not only did they not create the Gate, not only did they not purposefully enter it, not only did they have no idea where they were going, but it _didn't even open here_.  It opened in the Void, and some force opened the barrier between here and the void just long enough for them to fall here…"  She trailed off, running out of things to say, though her mind was a whirlwind, trying to picture how this could have happened, and why, and what the implications were. The others were also stunned, though Sunsong had a better grasp on the concepts his teacher was talking about, and its magnitude.  

            "If it opened in the void, that would be why we didn't feel it…" Sunsong muttered to himself.  Earthlight heard him.

            "Exactly.  Yet the energies were strong enough to affect the weather."

            Waternight worried his lip with his teeth, then voiced the question they were all wondering about.  "What do we do with them?"

            "Normally, we'd either drag them to our boundaries and leave them there, or just leave them here and let the forest take care of them," Wingfire said reluctantly.

            Sunsong whirled on his sister, eyes wide and flashing with opposition.  "No! I refuse to kill these two with no provocation.  Tayledras _always_ give interlopers the chance to turn around and leave unharmed."

            The scout held up her hands.  "I said _normally, brother.  In normal circumstances, many would agree it was the right thing to do."  She sighed.  "But I agree with you.  Something tells me that it would not be the right thing to do in this case."_

            "Earthlight?  What do you think?"  Waternight asked quietly. 

            The old mage was silent for a moment as she thought, absentmindedly squeezing rain from her hair. 

            "I don't think we should leave them here," she said finally said, hesitantly.  "Something tells me also that it would be a grave mistake.  But we know nothing about them.  I think we should take them to one of the unused scout ekeles that lie outside the Vale.  That way we can deal with them without compromising the Vale itself."  She thought a second more, then added, "And I think we should get their language from Myrvac, but wait until we know more about them before giving them Tayledras."

            The three remaining Hawkbrothers each gave their consent to the idea, then Sunsong and Waternight each bent to pick up one of the figures.  They were a boy and a girl, appearing to be in their late teen years or young adults.  As the scouts and mages returned to where the dyheli were waiting, the two men examined their burdens more closely.  Both were soaked through and through, the water and mud plastering their bizarre, outlandish garments to their skin.  

            Waternight bore the boy, whose clammy skin, in health, would probably bear some resemblance to the golden tone of the Tayledras.  His eyes were closed, so the scout had couldn't see what color they were, but he had dark lashes that seemed almost to be as thick as the black hair that covered his head.  His hair was extremely short by Tayledras standards, and, glancing across at the girl, Waternight saw that hers was the same length.    The young man's nose was straight and fine, and his noble mouth was parted slightly, expelling even, shallow puffs of air.  His frame was large, but he was not overweight, rather athletic in stature.  His features were refined yet undeniably masculine and very handsome.

            _He's beautiful… Waternight gazed down at the young man's face, enthralled by his beauty.  Realizing the path his thoughts were taking, Waternight frowned and looked away from his burden's face.  __Stupid, he rebuked himself harshly.  _You don't know a thing about him.  You have no idea if he's shaych, or even if such a thing is accepted where he's from… wherever he's from…__

            The Hawkbrothers reached the dyheli and mounted up, the men still holding the young man and women.  They had to juggle slightly to accomplish mounting the dyheli without dropping their unconscious burdens.  Finally, everyone was situated, and they started back to the Vale.  Like his sister's partner, Sunsong was studying his unwitting passenger.  He still held her in his arms against his chest.  There were no reins to hold onto – dyheli would never allow a bridle – and it was still raining, and there was a chill in the air.  They were all soaked, but the young man and women were absolutely saturated.  Sunsong angled his upper body so that he was shielding the girl from the worst of the rain, and it gave him the opportunity to look at her more closely.

            What stood out the most was her paleness.  Her skin was cold and clammy, and almost ghost-white, but Sunsong thought she'd have good color when she was healthy and warm.  Hair that would be golden-brown when it dried clung to her forehead in startlingly short locks.  The mage was intrigued by that short hair.  Very few Tayledras had hair so short, not even scouts, and women, almost never.  The rain was making it spike and stand on end.  Her nose was short and slightly turned up at the end.  Her full lips were pale and slack.  She was tall and slender, but surprisingly bendable – Sunsong had had no trouble in maneuvering her limbs while mounting.  Despite the short hair, Sunsong found the girl incredibly feminine and pretty, even with her death-like palor.  Her features were refined and attractive, her figure curvy and feminine.  She was not slight of stature or figure at all, but something about her gave Sunsong an oddly tight sensation in his chest, and he subconsciously hunched his shoulders further over her in an unwitting gesture of protection. 

            They were all lost in their own thoughts.  Wingfire was riding to the left of and slightly behind Waternight, and she watched him as he watched his unconscious passenger.  She felt her heart sinking as she witnessed the soft gaze on his face suddenly twist into an ugly, self-hating frown.  Biting off a curse, she repressed the urge to mindspeak him and offer some advice.  She'd seen that look on his face before – that utterly enraptured look that he got when he was completely smitten.  Waternight fell easily in love, but not easily out again.  He was vulnerable to getting hurt, she knew all too well.  It was usually she who picked up the shards of his broken heart and helped him piece them back together.  But she also knew that he was very resistant to advice.  That was why he'd been so reluctant to do what his father had suggested.  It was a character flaw that had the potential to get him into trouble, but he suppressed it in the field.  In any case, Wingfire knew she'd have to hold her tongue where this mysterious young man was concerned unless her partner came to her and asked for advice himself.  She sighed, and merely hoped fervently that she would not have to put Waternight back together yet again.

            While the three younger Tayledras were thinking about the strangers, Earthlight pondered them as well, though the bent of her thoughts were very different from the others'.  She was concerned – more deeply concerned than she had let on during her explanation of the outlanders' arrival.  The visual flashes she had gotten while brushing their minds… quite simply, they terrified her.  Earthlight considered herself a learned and worldy person.  She was the Shin'a'in liason for the Vale, after all, and she'd traveled extensively, and read even more.  A bit of secret pride, she believed she knew at least a fact or two about most of the known countries and cultures on Velgarth.  But the things she'd caught glimpses of from the two young strangers were utterly and completely alien to her.  Never in all her travels or reading had she come across anything that even remotely resembled the bizarre and frightening things in those flashes.  Things her mind shied from.  

            _And then there's the matter of the Gate… That shouldn't be possible.  Gates just don't__ open in the Void! A Gate without a terminus will suck its caster into the Void, but that's why they can't open there in the first place.  The Void consumes energy, and the more energy you use, the stronger the pull from the Void will be if the barrier is opened.  In theory, a Gate that opened into the Void would just… collapse into itself and disintegrate.  Yet from what I Felt, the Gate that brought them here did__ open in the Void.  And then left them there.  I Felt that there was a moment between when the Gate closed and that force forced the barrier open long enough to drop them into the forest.  What could have done that? What could have had enough power? And, Star Eyed, why?_

            Earthlight was becoming increasingly more and more uneasy with the implications of the questions simmering in her mind.  It was clear she'd have to discuss in depth with Darkfall and Starwind, the Vale founders, and most senior in the council.

            The Adept was so wrapped up in her thoughts and worries that she barely noticed Wingfire riding ahead to obtain some dry clothing for them all and bring it to an ekele not far from the vale.  When the scout was gone, the rest of the party rode on in silence, each immersed in his or her own musings, until they rode into view of the ekele where Wingfire waited.  Myrvac, the dyheli king stag stood beside her. Waternight, Sunsong, and Earthlight all dismounted with the same weariness that was apparent in Wingfire's stance.  They approached her and Myrvac, who glanced at the foreigners.

            :_You__ want their tongue, then?: It wasn't a question.  The men barely had time to set their burdens on the ground before they found themselves on the ground, biting back groans at their headaches.  Earthlight recovered first, as she'd been given languages in this manner before, and thanked the king stag. He bobbed his head, then left, the other four dyheli following him.  _

            "Are you sure he just dropped that language in my head, and didn't run the entire herd through my skull?" Sunsong groaned.  His sister's face appeared above him, and she helped him into a sitting position before handing him a small jug.

            "It's pain medicine.  I figured we'd need it," she explained.  Sunsong took an eager mouthful, then gasped at the taste.  Wingfire grimaced in empathy.  "Tastes like hoof cleanings, I know.  But it works."  She took the jug back from him and gave it to the others, who accepted it with much the same enthusiasm as Sunsong had.  

            Waternight hoisted himself to his feet and stumbled over to the young foreigners, who were still out cold.  He mindspoke Hrill, who flew up to the ekele and undid a latch that let down a rope with wooden rungs.  Sunsong joined the scout at the foot of the ladder, carrying the girl.  The looked at the wobbly ladder, than at each other.

            "Well… this should prove to be interesting," Sunsong said wryly.  Waternight just grunted.

            They hoisted the teens up over their shoulders, balancing them slightly forward so they could catch them if they started to slide, then climbed up to the lofted dwelling.  The women followed the men and joined them in a hastily-prepared sleeping chamber.  It hadn't been used in some time – that was evident from the slightly musty smell – but it was clean and dry and airtight.  The weather wouldn't reach the inhabitants.  

            "Here, get him out of those wet clothes and put these on him.  I've got the girl."  Wingfire thrust a large bundle of clothing into Waternight's arms, keeping about half for herself.  She efficiently stripped the strange, saturated garments from the girl's unresponsive body, looking at them curiously before setting them aside.  They were unlike any clothes she had ever seen before.  The girl had been wearing something that looked like breeches that had been cut off at the knee, only they were extremely loose around the legs and cinched at the waist by some sort of tie.  More strange, however, was the strip of metal teeth that seemed to hold the garment together.  The shirt was a little bit less strange.  It was grey and close-fitting, with wide straps instead of sleeves.  There was another similar shirt underneath that one, with thinner straps, a tighter chest, and a bright purplish-red color. 

            Piling the sopping clothes on a chair next to the bed, Wingfire briskly dried the girl's body with a towel, then maneuvered her limbs into a pair of soft breeches and a loose shirt.  She tucked the girl into the bed, and looked over at Waternight, who had dressed the boy similarly and put him in the other side of the bed.  Neither teen moved an inch on their own.  As the Hawkbrothers watched, color began to return to the foreigners' palid skin.  Earthlight sat on the edge of the bed and once again touched them each gently in turn, reading them.  She remained motionless longer than the first time, and a small crease of fatigue marred her brow when she finally resurfaced.  She stood up, and the two young adults both sighed deeply, and turned towards each other.  The boy reached his hand out blindly and found the girl's arm.  They both quieted.

            "Well," Earthlight sighed.  "Their unconsciousness was so deep because threads of the Gate were still tied to them.  Not enough to drain them quickly, but enough to be a steady pull on their energy.  I removed the threads, but I couldn't close the channels that they were attached to.  It's like they're… locked open, almost.  Which means they'll recover and regain consciousness quickly, but as of right now, I literally cannot block them."  She looked bewildered and a little bit frightened.  "I've… never seen anything like this before.  These younglings have two of the widest, strongest channels for Magegift that I've ever seen."  She paused, then added quietly.  "I think that if they get training – which is absolutely imperative, if it's safe to do so – they will be two of the strongest mages the world has ever seen."

            Earthlight's words were met with a shocked silence.  There was nothing to say to a pronouncement of such magnitude.  All four Tayledras stared down at the sleeping youngsters as the new information slowly settled in their minds.  The boy and girl looked so innocent, sleeping soundly.  It hardly seemed possible that they would possess a power more terrible and wonderful than any of them had ever dreamed.  It was difficult to wrap one's mind around.  Finally, Wingfire, ever efficient, broke the silence.

            "Well," she said briskly.  "Let us hope that they heal and wake quickly, then, so that we may speak with them and discover whether they are the sort that we should train, or the sort that we should… deal with otherwise."

            Waternight grimaced, and Sunsong looked as though he'd swallowed something very bitter, but Earthlight nodded gravely.  She knew, better than all of them, the necessity of such a course of action, should it be inevitable.  Clans had been destroyed by their own "mercy" in similar situations.

            "In that case, we should let them sleep off their ordeal," she said.  "We'll keep guards posted at all times."  She paused for a moment.  "I… don't think we should tell Darkfall and Starwind about these two yet.  I think we should see how things develop first.  But we'll need more guards."

            "Hylera and Striihl," Sunsong said immediately.  "I trust them implicitly.  Plus, no one in their right mind would cross a full grown gryphon."

            "These two may _not_ be in their right minds," Wingfire pointed out. 

            "True, but Hylera and Striihl can take down even crazed enemies, at least of this size.  I don't think we'll have to worry about that."

            "The gryphons it is, then.  They should suffice.  We'll have three watches of two each."  Earthlight seemed satisfied with the arrangement.  "Now let us hope that these two wake quickly.  The sooner I know what to do with them, the happier I'll be."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

            Breathing deeply, Emily blew air noisily out through her nose as she snuggled her face into the soft pillow her head was resting on.  She was under warm, thick blankets, and she stretched slow and long, luxuriating in a feeling of content.  She felt the thorough rest of one who has been asleep a long time after something strenuous. 

            _Mmmm__… she thought sleepily.  _Guess we got back to the house…_  She still hadn't opened her eyes, but she felt a hand – Tom's on her arm – and that spelled safety to her.  Not moving her arm, lest she dislodge Tom's hand, she rolled further onto her stomach and sighed.  This was nice.  _We should come up to ___Mich__—_

            The air she was breathing finally registered in Emily's brain, and she froze, every muscle tense.  The Michigan house had a distinct scent.  Musty, and a little bit sharp.  The air that tickled her nostrils was also distinct, to be sure, but there was nothing Michigan about it.  It was heavy with the scent of plant life, green growing things, and damp earth.  And there was a hint of something… just plain different.  Something completely unfamiliar to her.  

            She opened her eyes only a slit, enough to see out of, but not enough to catch the attention of anyone who might be in the room.  Tom's sleeping face was directly in her line of sight.  _Well, that tells me a lot._  Closing her eyes again, she pretended to roll over in her sleep.  Now facing out from the bed, she again slitted her eyes.  From her position, the room seemed sparse and rustic.  The far wall she faced held a doorway, from which a thin drape of some gauzy material hung.  The walls were wooden and rounded.  There were no corners, that she could see.  Emily frowned.  A round room… that was slightly odd.  Near the door in the far wall, a simple, wooden chair sat.  That was all she could see.  Holding her breath, Emily listened hard for any sounds of movement.  She was met with silence.  Shifting slightly, she pulled her arm from under Tom's hand, meaning to push off the blankets and see the rest of the room.

            The second she moved, her head exploded in a cacophony of sounds, images, and sensations that she couldn't even begin to understand.  Random flashes of strange people and creatures, scents and sights that were utterly alien, emotions so strong she felt them like a physical blow – they all slammed into her mind.  Taken completely unaware, Emily screamed in pain.  She clapped her hands over her ears as her body convulsed, tossing her back against the bed, where she landed on a now awake, and very alarmed, Tom.  He grabbed her arm, and as suddenly as it had come, the jumble in her mind vanished, leaving a deafening silence in its wake.

            "What happened? Are you ok?"  Tom shook Emily slightly.  She was curled up, huddled against him, her hands clenched.  Tears leaked from her tightly closed eyes, and she was whimpering.  He shook her again, a little harder.  "Emily! What's wrong?"

             "I… there was… I heard things… or felt them… or… God, I don't know…" she ended in a moan.  

            Before he had a chance to respond, there was the sound of running feet, and two people rushed into the room, coming up short just inside the doorway.  Tom swore and Emily let out a small shriek of surprise.  Both of them clutched each other convulsively as they stared, frozen, at the newcomers.           

            They were a young man and an older woman.  The man was dressed in close-fitting leather breeches and a belted leather tunic, all in shades of grey, brown and green.  His shoulder length hair – an odd, mottled brown in color - was pulled back and tied in a tail.  He had fallen instinctively into a defensive position, marking him as a fighter, and by the look of the tight muscles visible under his clothes, a capable one at that.  He hadn't drawn any weapons, but his right hand hovered near his hip, suggesting that there was a hidden weapon somewhere in that vicinity.

            The woman was similarly dressed, though her garments were not quite as utilitarian as the man's.  The leather looked newer and had less wear, and there was more linen in the make.  Her hair was much longer than the man's, falling to the backs of her knees, though it was tightly braided.  It was pure ice-white in color, and matched the silver-white of her eyes.  She was willowy thin, and though her body was obviously not the honed weapon that the man's was, she exuded a complete strength of body and mind that was almost tangible.  

            Tom and Emily were frozen in shock.  The man and women glanced at each other for a moment, then the woman started towards the bed.  Emily cringed.  Snapping out of his stupor, Tom scrambled from the bed to block the woman from Emily.

            At his movement, Emily's body was again wracked with fire and pain.  She screamed again, a tortured sound.  Tom whipped his head around in panic and saw her shaking like a leaf on the bed.  She was locked inside herself, the pain and confusion washing over her in neverending waves of molten fire.  His heart in his throat, Tom whirled back to face the woman, his heart torn in two directions.  His instincts screamed at him to not let the stranger out of his sight, but his soul cried out to his best friend.  Eyeing the woman, who had stopped moving towards him, he heard Emily's screams fade to moans and gasps as her energy sapped.  Sweat dripped down his temple and he stood frozen in agony, not knowing what to do.  

            The woman held out her hands, palms up, in the universal gesture of peace.  She slid cautiously closer to the confused young man.

            "Please," she said in his language.  "We mean you no harm.  I can help her."  

            Tom started at the sound of her voice.  She spoke English, but with an accent so strange it took him a moment to realize that it was, in fact, English at all.  His eyes flickered back and forth between the woman and the young man, who still stood just inside the doorway, watching everything with a wary expression on his face.  Emily let out a weak moan, which drew his attention back to the woman.

            "Who are you?  What makes you think I'll let you near her?"  He backed up, never taking his eyes from the woman, and reached blindly for Emily.  His hand found her shoulder, and he immediately felt her tense muscles relax.  She let out a sob of relief and slumped down on the bed, utterly spent.

            A look of surprise, fleeting before she hid it, appeared on the woman's face as she watched them.  She advanced a bit more, stealthily, as she spoke soothingly.  "My name is Earthlight, and this is Waternight."  She gestured at the young man behind her.  "I promise you, we only want to help you.  Now, I can help her, or you can allow her to stay in pain."  

            Tom cringed at her words.  He paused, considering her words, then reluctantly nodded and moved away from Emily.  As he withdrew, she started to tremble again, and weak moans emerged from her abused throat.  

            Earthlight sighed a mental sigh of relief when the boy nodded, clearly unhappy with the choices he was presented with.  She went quickly to the girl's side, and grabbed the young man's hand as he tried to withdraw to give her room. 

            "No, I need you," she explained as he recoiled instinctively from her touch.  She placed his hand on the girl's shoulder once again, and lay her free hand on the girl's back.  The shivers stopped, but the girl seemed completely drained.  With a mental twist, the mage shifted to Magesight, and inhaled sharply when what she saw confirmed what she had expected.  

            The young man had a shield around him, tighter and stronger than most she'd seen in her day.  It was flawless – and seemingly, created and maintained completely by reflex on the boy's part.  He seemed utterly unaware that he had such a shield.  The girl, in contrast, had not the merest hint of one.  She was raw and open, her channels completely exposed.  Earthlight bit back an exclamation when she examined those channels more closely.  There were several, but the two largest and strongest were for Magegift and Empathy.  _No wonder she reacted as she did – with no shields and channels of this strength, she must have been picking up energy and emotions and thoughts all the way from Valdemar!  _

            But the strangest thing – when the boy touched the girl, his shield expanded and flowed to encase the girl, cutting her off from the multitude of intrusions.  Earthlight was baffled.  She'd never heard of anything like this, much less seen it firsthand. Mages placing separate shields over another person was common, but she's never heard of a mage actually sharing his own… She itched to examine it more closely, not to mention explore the identity of that very alien channel that the boy had, shaped and colored like nothing she'd ever heard of…

            But for right now, getting a shield around the girl was her primary concern.  She dropped into the outer-most layers of the girl's mind.

            :_I'm__ here to help you.: she Mindspoke soothingly.  :_See___ this barrier around you?  Feel it.  You must recreate one of your own.:  She Felt the girl fumble in confusion, then slowly See the shield that the mage showed her.  :__Yes__.  Here__ is your center, going down into the earth.  And this__ is how you connect the barrier to the ground, so it does not move or go away.:  She patiently showed the girl how to build her own shield, observing in amazement that the girl didn't even seem to be aware of what she was doing, as if a purely instinctual and self-preserving, unconscious part of her were creating the shield.  As the girl got her own shield up, Earthlight removed the boy's hand from her shoulder.  The girl cringed, but the shield held.  Pulling slowly out of rapport with the girl, Earthlight saw her unconsciously shunt energy into the shield, strengthening and maintaining it.  __Incredible…_

            The mage pulled back and the girl slumped forward.  The boy quickly stepped into the space that Earthlight had vacated and put his arm under the girl's shoulders, supporting her.  He turned to Earthlight, his eyes a frightening meld of fear, awe, and barely suppressed desperate panic. 

            "What did you do?" he demanded.

            "Well, I showed her how to –.."

            But the young man ran on as if the mage hadn't spoken.  "And who are you?  And where the fuck are we?  How did we get here?"

            Waternight, sensing that the young man was on the verge of hysterics, stepped forward from his place by the door and held out a calming hand.  The boy jumped at his motion, as if he'd forgotten about the scout's presence.  

            "Calm down," he said gently.  "We can't answer your questions if we think you're going to have a meltdown at any second.  I promise you, like Earthlight said, we're here to help you."

            He held the boy's gaze as he spoke, and tried to project how sincere he was, layering the words with a soothing calm.

            Surprisingly, it was the girl who stood and smiled – albeit hesitantly – at  Waternight, the pinched look gone from her face.  She seemed more relaxed.  She stood next to the boy and placed a hand on his lower back.  The act appeared to have an even further calming effect on them both.  The boy sighed deeply.

            "We're ok.  Now, please, tell us what's going on here."  It was the girl who spoke, her voice low and warm.  

            Waternight smiled.  "Well, we've introduced ourselves.  It seems only fair that you return the favor."  His tone was light and casual.  

            :_Do__ you mind of I take over from here?: he Sent to Earthlight.  :__I'm__ closer to their age, so they may feel more comfortable relating to __me.:_

            :_Not__ at all.  Actually, I was going to suggest it.:_

            He turned his attention back to the foreigners.  "So.  What can we call you?"

            This time it was the boy who spoke.  "My name's Tom, and this is Emily."

_Odd names… I suppose they could be Valdemaran, though the dress is all wrong. _

"Well, Tom, Emily, I am Waternight, a scout for k'Sheyna Vale, and my lovely companion here is Earthlight – elder, council-member, Adept mage, and all around wonderful person…" He trailed off when he saw the looks on Tom and Emily's faces.  They were both staring at him, expressions of utter disbelief and awe gracing their features.  

            "WHAT???"  They both cried the word at the same time.  Startled, they looked at each other, seeming to forget about the presence of the mage and scout. 

            "He's lying.  He has to be.  There's no way in hell we're in a Vale," Tom told Emily firmly.  He was shaking his head in denial.

            Emily just nodded.  She started to laugh, weakly at first, then increasingly stronger and louder until she was holding her sides and tears were streaming down her face.  It was the laughter of a hysterical person.  The scout regarded the two with growing alarm.  

            :_Do__ you think something… happened?  To their minds?:  Waternight asked the mage worriedly._

            :_No__,: she Sent back, immediately and reassuringly.  :__It's__ the stress of their ordeal.:  She sounded confident, but the mage was concerned about their reaction as well.  It was strange – they acted as if they had heard of Tayledras before, yet found the idea of being among them impossible.  Earthlight dropped that train of thinking as the girl – Emily – addressed them again._

            "That's good, that's a good one.  Really, very clever.  I mean, how much effort did it take to do the costumes and get us to this… wherever we are?  But seriously, why bother?  I mean -.." she paused to laugh again, and Waternight took the opportunity to inject, 

            "Actually, we're not IN the Vale itself.  Not too many people even know of your existence, and we'd rather keep it that way for a while."  His tone was vague and evasive.  

            Tom gave him an impatient look.  "Come on, seriously.  Are you connected with the school?  This is pretty extreme just for ditching.  Did our parents put you up to this?  And _what is that accent?  And I swear to God, if you had _anything_ to do with what happened to Emily, whatever the __fuck that was, I will kick the shit out of you," he ended with a dark glare.  His tone was grim, and the scout shivered, not doubting for a second the truth behind the words._

            Waternight and Earthlight exchanged a Look.  Earthlight sighed.

            "Why don't you tell us where you're from.  That may help us figure this out."

            "Chicago."  The Tayledras shared a glance, and both shrugged.  Emily gaped in disbelief.  "You know, Chicago, the third biggest city in the U.S.?"  The blank looks didn't change.  "Ok, Illinois."  No change.  "Do _not_ tell me you've never heard of Illinois.  You know, the United States of America?"

            "Is that… south?  Near Acabarrin?"  Earthlight was grasping at straws, and named one of the southern countries that no one knew much about, that she had only heard of.

            "Near _where?"  Emily was getting impatient now as well.  "Look, this is all very cute, but drop the act, ok?  Do you think we're stupid?  We love the books, but they're fiction.  Not real.  Tayledras, Vales, Valdemar, Companions… they _don't exist_.  Did you really think we'd fall for that? Aside from whatever you did to me, which you __will explain," she looked pointedly at Earthlight.  "There's just no way you could be telling the truth.  Now __tell us where we are."  Emily's eyes flashed with impatience and anger, her fear and confusion forgotten for the moment.  She didn't get truly angry easily or often, but she was tired, confused, and irritated, and was quickly becoming very mad.  _

            She felt Tom place a hand on her arm.  She looked at him questioningly.  He bent his head and spoke softly into her ear, never taking his eyes from the mage and the scout.

            "Em… look at them.  They're really confused.  They have no idea what we're talking about."

            She gritted her teeth and looked at the "Hawkbrothers" – really _looked_ at them.  The two stood patiently under her scrutiny, perhaps sensing it was important.  

            The scout's hair, mottled in different shades of brown, had white roots.  Emily blinked.  White roots?  She frowned, and shifted her gaze from that rather disturbing detail.  His leather tunic and breeches showed signs of regular wear and frequent exposure to weather.  He wore some sort of leather gauntlet on his right arm that covered it up to the shoulder.  It looked like a falconer's glove.  _A falconer's glove?__  Ok, you are _not_ starting to consider this… She looked at the woman.  Her white hair, though bound in a braid, was still obviously long enough to reach the backs of her knees.  It was devoid of decoration.  She too wore a gauntlet, though hers was more detailed and finely tooled.  Emily looked at her face and was startled to find that her eyes where almost as white as her hair.  They were a pure, crystal-silver grey, and they held more wisdom than Emily had ever seen in a human before._

            Speechless, she turned back to Tom, who nodded once in confirmation of what he'd already noticed.  Keeping his hand on her arm, Tom once again eyed the strangers.  

            "Alright.  Let's say you're telling the truth, that you two really are Tayledras, and me and Emily really are somewhere near a Vale.  How the fuck did we get here?"

            :_You__ take this one, elder.  You're the mage – I don't even pretend to understand it.:_

            Earthlight opened her mouth to speak, then noticed Emily sway a bit, her eyes hazy.  The mage gestured towards the bed.

            "Why don't you sit?  You've been through quite an ordeal."  The young adults took her suggestion and sat.  "Well.  At least you picked the question that we are best prepared to answer, though we don't fully understand it ourselves."  She shook her head.  "I'm confusing you.  I apologize.  Based on what I saw in the residual energies from your minds when we found you, the best I can say is that you came through something we call a Gate.  It's a -.."

            "We know what it is," Tom interrupted.  "What about it?"

            Surprised, Earthlight had to gather her thoughts for a moment before continuing.  "Well, it opened in the Void, which in and of itself is… not supposed to be possible…"

*                                  *                                  *

            Emily dropped her head into her hands and ran her fingers through her closely cropped hair.  She sighed deeply through her nose, then rubbed her eyes before lifting her head again to look at the two unreadable faces before her.

            "So, you think some random Gate with no caster – which isn't supposed to be possible – just appeared in Michigan, which, theoretically, would be in an alternate universe, and me and Tom just happened to conveniently stumble through it, where it dropped us in the Void – which, again, isn't supposed to be possible – and then _something_ opened the Void and got us here."

            Earthlight quirked an eyebrow.  "Well, it's highly doubtful that you and Tom "conveniently stumbled through."  But yes, that is the most likely explanation that we have right now."

            "What do you mean, it's highly doubtful?" Tom demanded.

            "As Emily stated, the problem with this theory is that several things that must have taken place aren't supposed to be possible.  The probability of all of this happening randomly is astronomically small.  If this is what really happened – and we can't be positive that it is – then it certainly didn't happen by chance.  It was done for a reason, though for what reason and by whom, I don't know."

            "Oh, do _not tell me that this was 'fate,' or that this was 'meant to happen.'  That's bullshit!  The last thing we need right now is to play hero to some destined path or whatever."  Tom threw his hands up in the air and made a wordless sound of irritation as he turned to Emily.  "And I can't believe we're even _considering_ that this is real! I'm still not convinced that this is anything other than some fucking joke."  He turned back to Earthlight and Waternight.  "You're good actors, I'll give you that.  Very convincing.  But the only way we're gonna believe this bullshit is if you prove it."_

            Waternight stood abruptly, a look of impatience on his face. Emily tensed, feeling a change in the air.  It had a thick feel that was almost a taste, and it was sharp and hot and made her nose itch.  She cringed and tensed even more, confused by what she seemed to be the only one to notice.  She gritted her teeth and tried to stay calm, but panic was slowly creeping up her spine.  The more frightened she got, the heavier the feeling became.  More tastes and feelings began to join the first, until she couldn't distinguish one from another.  The press of confusion built and built, becoming almost unbearable.

            Tom touched her shoulder and she blinked, the pressure gone.  She touched her forehead hesitantly, wondering if she weren't going mad.  A voice pierced her thoughts and she realized that the scout was speaking.

            "…we're just as confused as you two are, but you don't see _us insisting that you're not even real!  We're breaking __centuries of tradition by not having killed you on sight, and you won't even give us the benefit of the doubt! You want proof?  Fine.  Follow me."  He turned on his heel and walked briskly out of the room.  The teens glanced at Earthlight, who gestured for them to follow him, an amused look on her face.  They hastened to catch up with Waternight._

            Emerging from the room, Tom and Emily cleared the doorway just in time to see the scout's head disappear through a trap-door in the floor of another similar room.  In fact, it seemed almost identical, save one detail.

            There was a massively thick tree trunk in the middle of the room.  Indeed, the room seemed to be built around it.  It rose from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling.  The teens glanced at each other, eyes wide, then peered over the edge of the hole that Waternight had descended into.  

            His face looked up at them from the ground a good twenty feet below them.  He stood on grass and dirt, and Tom thought he glimpsed more foliage around the scout.  A rope ladder was attached to the trap-door and swayed gently in the breeze, dropping to the ground below.

            Emily moved to go down the ladder, but Tom caught her arm.  She looked at him in surprise.

            "Let me go first.  That way if anything happens…" he trailed off.

            "Oh, nice, so that _you_ get killed and leave me here?"

            Tom just gave Emily a Look, and the rest of her argument died in her throat.

            "Fine.  Go."

            Tom swung his legs over the side of the opening, found the ladder with his feet, and was on the ground in seconds.  Emily watched as he looked around, then slid her body through the hole when he looked up expectantly.

            Earthlight joined the other three on the ground and gave Waternight a sharp look.

            :_Just__ how exactly do you plan on "proving" the reality of their situation to them?:  Her mindvoice was sharp, with faint undertones of disapproval.  :__You__ know you can't bring them to the Vale.:_

            :_I__ know.  Don't worry, what I have in mind in no way compromises the Vale.  _Striihl___ and Wingfire were due for guard duty in a bit, so they should be unoccupied right now, and Sunsong and Hylera won't be doing anything they can't set aside for a moment. I mainly want the gryphons, but it couldn't hurt to have the other two here as well.  Anyway, I want to bring in the bondbirds first.  Call in Syrcin, if you would.:_

*                                  *                                  *

            "So what do you think of the birds?"  Tom murmured.

            Emily looked up from the aimless designs she'd been scratching in the ground with a stick and glanced across the small clearing underneath the building they'd descended from.  The "Hawkbrothers" were on that side – Earthlight sitting serenely on a tree root, Waternight leaning against the same tree in a deceptively casual pose.  "The birds" that Tom referred to were present as well.  They were both massive; larger than any raptor Emily had ever seen or heard of.  The larger of the two – Emily thought it was a Goshawk – was perched on the same root as Earthlight, and she was feeding it bits of meat that she produced from a pouch hanging from her belt.  The smaller bird, which was undoubtedly a Peregrine, stood on Waternight's shoulder and periodically nibbled his ear or preened a beakfull of the scout's hair. 

            A fact that made Emily very, very nervous.

            "You mean besides the fact that they're fully twice the size of any normal Peregrine and Goshawk?"

            "In the books –.." 

            "I know," she cut him off.  "Bondbirds are described that way.  That's not the only way those birds match the description.  Look – look at the way the Gos is taking the meat from Earthlight.  It's taking it _delicately.  Raptors normally gulp their food.  And the Peregrine.  Under no circumstances does a falconer – or even anyone who knew anything about birds of prey – let his bird anywhere near that close to his face.  It's just asking to lose an eye.  Birds of prey are just too unpredictable.  I mean, the best a falconer can ever expect from his birds is toleration, but these birds… they're being friendly, Tom."  She ended her tirade with a helpless wave of her hands, then sighed._

            "What are we waiting for, anyway?"

            Before Tom could respond, two shrill, piercing bird cries rang out, at the same time as a brief shadow passed over the clearing.  At these, Waternight pushed himself from the tree trunk and grinned triumphantly at the teens.

            "Your proof is here," was all he said.

            Tom and Emily looked upwards through the trees and were forced to shield their eyes with a hand as a slight breeze steadily grew into a whipping wind.  Through squinted eyes, Tom noticed two more people enter the clearing and stand near Earthlight and Waternight.  

            All of Emily's attention was focused above her, and her mouth grew slack with denial as her mind put the clues together to form an idea of what was coming.  When the makers of the wind finally came into view, the teen covered her eyes with her hand for a moment, shook her head, and then removed the hand to take another look.  Her eyes hadn't lied.

            Four huge, powerful wings backwinged, elegantly cupping the air as they supported the muscular bodies that resembled a fluid mesh of raptor and feline.  They were both huge – the size of large draft horses at least, if not bigger.  One was slightly larger than the other.  They both stretched one hind paw out to touch down on the ground, seemed to hover for a moment, then dropped to the ground, folding their wings and settling on their haunches with the flawlessness of mercury.

            Waternight applauded the landing briefly before turning to Tom and Emily.  He allowed himself a mental pat on the back in triumph.  The teenagers were staring at the gryphons in complete shock.  They both looked like they were about to have trouble breathing.  

            "You should feel privileged.  Hylera and Striihl don't treat just anyone to such an artistic landing."  He shot a mischievous glance in the gryphons' direction.  "They're getting so old, it's a wonder they perform that bit of fancy flying at all anymore.  Truly, consider yourselves lucky."

            As Tom and Emily watched, the smaller, darker of the creatures clacked its beak.  The sound was surprisingly loud.  To their further amazement, it spoke in a deep, rumbling, masculine voice.

            "If we are old, then you are an Adept mage."  It – no, he – turned to the two friends and addressed them, and they found themselves staring into liquid amber eyes the size of tennis balls.  "Merely an exercise.  We have not had reason to exact that specific maneuver in some time."  He ended with a wink.

            In a daze, Emily approached the male gryphon and slowly reached out a hand towards him.  Only when she was mere feet away from him and his sweet, musky scent reached her nostrils did she stop abruptly and blink.  It seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she'd been in and she gasped, pulling her hand quickly back.

            The gryphon rumbled a chuckle and gaped his beak in what seemed to be the gryphon equivalent of a grin.  His eyes sparkled cheerily.

            "Never fear, I won't bite your hand off.  You can touch me if you wish.  In fact, rubbing a gryphon's crest is supposed to bring you great luck.  It's –.."

            "A time honored tradition…" Emily interrupted.  "Kelvren said that to Keisha," she muttered, seemingly to herself.

            The gryphon's nares flushed red and his companion let out a chuckle.

            "Your plot has been foiled," she said with amusement.  She then turned to a wide-eyed Emily.  "So you know of our wingbrother in k'Valdemar, hmm?  And of Keisha?  How is it that you know of them?  Waternight has told us some of the circumstances concerning you two and your presence here, so I doubt that you know of Kelvren and Keisha through personal experience."

            Emily's vocal chords seemed to have failed her.  She stared at the female gryphon, unable to form an answer to the question.  Muffled footsteps told her that Tom now stood next to her.

            "Tom," she breathed shakily.  "Pinch me."

            Ignoring the request, but taking his friend's hand firmly, Tom faced Hylera.  

            "We… there are books about you – them – uh.. about all of this.  We read them, all of them.  But they're fantasy, they're not real.  They were created by someone else, a human.  They're not real."

            Striihl addressed Hylera.  "He keeps saying that," he chuckled.

            She acknowledged him with a nod, then turned her attention back to Tom and Emily.  She cocked her head and contemplated them for a few moments, then reached over to Striihl and deftly plucked a loose feather from his chest with her beak.  He squawked in protest, but settled down when she gave him a Look.  Opening her beak, Hylera let the feather drift silently to the ground.

            "Pick it up," she ordered.

            Glancing at Emily, Tom quickly retrieved the feather.  It was longer than his hand.  

            "Now look at that," Hylera said.  "Look at the end there.  There is blood and tissue on it.  Surely that tells you that we are real.  We would not bleed if we were not real."

            The teens looked at each other.  After a few minutes of silence, Emily glanced at the gryphons, then at Earthlight and Waternight, then back at her friend.  

            "I… something tells me that they're telling the truth, Tom," she whispered.  She looked at the ground and worried her bottom lip for a moment before again meeting his eyes.  They pleaded silently with him.  "I think this is real."

            Tom sighed heavily.  "I don't know how the hell it could be, but that sure seems to be the case."  He ran his hands through his hair, then turned and faced Waternight.  The scout met his gaze, the frustrated challenge still lingering in his eyes.  

            "Alright," Tom said, loud enough for everyone present to hear, though his eyes were still locked with Waternight's.  "I guess we have no choice but to believe that all this is real.  The real question is, what the hell happens now?"


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: First of all, I'm so sorry it took so long for me to get this chapter up. I've been absolutely swamped with school and work and all, so it's hard to find time to write.  I'm really gonna try my best to get successive chapters up sooner. ALSO, I _did_ use a few paragraphs verbatim from Winds of Change, so those are NOT mine. They are the property of Mercedes Lackey, and no infringement is intended. Hell, I'm not making any money off of this anyway. Enjoy, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!!!**

**Chapter 4**

            The first part of the council session that day proceeded smoothly and uneventfully.  There were a few disputes that had become serious enough to require the attention of the Vale council, but they were handled swiftly and efficiently.  Then came the regular reports from each area of specialty – scouts, mages, artisans, hunters, the _dyheli, __hertasi, and __kyree.  After the reports was the time for any council members to bring up any issues they felt needed council attention, and it was at this time that Earthlight stood up.  The entire council fell silent and watched her with curious interest.  The adept rarely brought any concerns to the council, and besides, as an elder, she had the choice of informing only the other elders of any issue she chose.  The fact that she would be addressing the entire council was a rarity.  She gently cleared her throat before she spoke._

            "I have some very intriguing – and also very mysterious news – that concerns the entire Vale, which is why I have chosen to bring this news to all of you.  I'm sure you all noticed the rain we've been having since yesterday, when the weather-workers had predicted clear skies."  

            The numerous nods and murmurs confirmed her assumption.

            "That weather was the result of Gate energies.  It-.."

            Her pronouncement caused the immediate interest and wariness she had expected, and she was cut off by several alarmed voices.

            "A Gate?  Built by whom?  We've received no message from any of the other Vales, nor from Valdemar."  That particular voice belonged to Starwind, senior council elder and one of the Vale founders.  She was leaning forward in her seat and her eyebrows were knit together in consternation. 

            Earthlight held up a hand and the commotion died down. 

            "That's because none of them built it.  We don't actually know who did, but that's not the only mysterious factor here.  Two young people – a girl and a boy – came through the Gate, and from the information I've picked up from them, it seems that the Gate opened very briefly in the Void; just long enough to deposit the youngsters."  The council would have erupted into chaos had Earthlight not held out her hands and plowed ahead.  "I know what you're thinking – Gates can't open in the Void, the very nature of that plane is such that a Gate could never exist.  I can't explain it, but that is what happened, as far as I can tell."

            Darkfall, the other Vale founder, spoke up quickly.  "While the matter of the Gate is important and definitely needs looking into, that is a matter for the Mages to deal with.  However, these two young people – that is something that concerns the entire Vale.  We all trust your judgment, Earthlight.  Tell us about them.

            Earthlight hesitated only a moment before speaking.  She had decided before the council session to only tell Starwind and Darkfall about Tom and Emily's channels.  

            "As we all know, Tayledras tradition dictates that outsiders found inside our boundaries are given two options – leave peacefully or face death.  There are a few things that gave me pause when considering that option as regards these two.  One – due to the Alliance, Tayledras have slowly evolved into being a bit more lenient with the "shoot now, ask questions later" policy.  I know some of you are uncomfortable or unhappy with that change, but I for one support it.  That is why I didn't have them left for the forest to deal with.  Two – these young people were… "spit out" by the Gate.  They did not knowingly enter it, and they had no idea where they were when they regained consciousness.  Three – the reason for that is because, from what I can tell, they come from a land farther away than any of us can imagine, a land very different from our own.  They are utterly lost here.  They don't know where they are, they don't know why they're here, and they are very, very far from home."  The mage paused to let all that sink in before hitting the council with the suggestion she knew would meet with dissent. 

            "And I think that we should welcome them into the Vale and make them wing-sibs."

            Earthlight sat back and watched as the council exploded into argument.  Starwind leaned across her seat and caught Earthlight's eyes in an incredulous stare.

            "Are you mad?  You ask us to accept two unknown foreigners into the Vale?  We know nothing about these youngsters!  They could be spies or rogue mages!"

            Earthlight met Starwind's stare unflinchingly.  

            :_I__ know how this appears,: she Mindspoke Starwind and Darkfall.  :_Believe___ me, I have no wish to endanger the Vale-:_

            :_Your__ words would suggest otherwise.:  Starwind's mindvoice was dark._

            :_Hear__ me out.  There is something else about these two – they're names are Tom and Emily – that I believe will lead you to agree with me.  I did not tell this to the entire council because I don't want too many to know it, and only you two will understand its implications anyway.  These two have the widest, strongest channels for Magegift I've ever seen.  It is absolutely imperative that they receive training, or their gifts will destroy them, and quite possibly a large chunk of wherever they are with them.  And "wherever they are" is HERE.  Plus… they both have channels that I've… I've never seen before.  Channels I've never even heard of.  You know what that means.:_

            :_Yes__… like the Heralds always say… strong gifts and strange gifts always appear right before they're needed,:  Darkfall said thoughtfully.  _

            :_I__ don't like this at all.:_

            Earthlight nodded at Starwind in sympathy.  :_Believe_ me, if the roles were reversed, neither would I.  But as I see it, we don't really have a choice.  We either offer these two protection and training, and have these powerful gifts on our side, or we set them loose and risk a very messy problem sometime in the future.:__

*                                  *                                  *

            They all sat around the clearing – the same one underneath the _ekele, the same one that Earthlight had vacated some time earlier in order to attend the council session, with a promise to return with "important news."  Whatever that was._

            Tom and Emily leaned against a huge tree, reclining between massive roots that swelled up from the ground only to disappear back into it.  The scout, Waternight, leaned against another tree, close to theirs.  The two gryphons were lounging in a patch of sunlight, and the other two humans who had joined the group at the same time as the gryphons were sitting together in the center.  Luckily, this clearing was rather well protected from the elements, so the ground was relatively dry, despite all the rainfall.  It was also close enough to the Vale that hazards of the forest were rarely a problem – this little tidbit had been provided by the new male, a mage named Sunsong.  The other newcomer was Sunsong's sister and Waternight's scouting partner, Wingfire.  Conversation had been sparse, as Tom and Emily were still rather overwhelmed at being oh-so-casually dropped right into the middle of their favorite fantastical universe.  

            "So," Hylera said calmly.  "You seem to know quite a bit about us – or at least, about our kind, and about our featherless-family."  She gestured towards the Hawkbrothers.  "How is it you know so much?"

            Waternight looked up at the teens with interest.  "Yes, you said something about books.  There are books about us?  That can't be possible – Tayledras are notorious for their secrecy."

            Emily shook her head.  "In this world, yeah.  Back… where we're from, this world doesn't really exist.  There's this woman – this author – named Mercedes Lackey.  She's written this entire series of fantasy novels, I think about twenty-two books, all based on Valdemar and Tayledras and Karse and Shin'a'in and Hardorn and whatnot.  Basically, all of Velgarth.  Tom and I love those books.  I own all of them, I read them all the time.  They start chronologically with the Mage Wars of prehistory -.."

            Striihl sat up and perked his ear-tufts forward.  His crest fluffed a bit in interest.  "The Mage Wars?  You mean the ones between Ma'ar and the Mage of Silence?  There are records of this?"

            "Yeah, all about Urtho and Skandranon and Ma'ar and the Heighlei Empire and Amberdrake and all those people."

            "Urtho… the Mage of Silence… his name has been forgotten for so long, and now you bring it back to us."  Striihl was looking at the teens with something like awe in his eyes.  "So much from that time has been lost.  We have no detailed records.  What we do have is mostly legend, speculation, and guesses.  What do your records say?"

            "Well, they're not really records," Tom corrected.  "They're books – fiction novels.  They're very detailed.  It's like reading a story.  Instead of like a history book, which is only 'and then there was this war from this year to this year and these were the key people involved' and stuff, they're more like 'and then Skandranon walked into Urtho's chamber and their conversation went like this.'  The books have conversations, detailed military plans, things they were all thinking, peoples' histories, all that kind of stuff."  He paused and looked at Emily, while the gryphons were watching him eagerly.  "If we had known we were gonna get tossed into Velgarth, we should've brought your books with us," he chuckled.  "I know I don't remember half the details of what was in them."

            "For real."  A shadowed look passed briefly over Emily's face as something occurred to her.  "Speaking of my books – as they're at home – um… are we going to be able to get back?"

            The clearing fell silent.  The two scouts looked at each other and shrugged – the more complicated dealings of magic were beyond them.  The gryphons were earth-mages, and so couldn't work with higher level power.  Sunsong was the only high-level mage there.  After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, he cleared his throat.  

            "Well… we won't really know anything about that until we know a lot more about how and why you're here.  That could take some time.  Also, Earthlight and the other Adepts would know more about that."  

            "Anyway, that's neither here nor now," Wingfire broke in.  The tension was getting a little thick for her liking.  "You said there were many books in this… 'series' of yours.  Since the first ones are about the Mage Wars, what are the other ones about?"

            "Well, after those ones, there's the trilogy about Vanyel."  Emily started mentally ticking off books.  "Then there are a few about Tarma and Kethry, then a trilogy about Talia, then a trilogy about Elspeth and Darkwind and Firesong and the whole Ancar and Falconsbane business.  Then there's a trilogy about the mage storms and the Eastern Empire and Karse and all that fun stuff.  Then there's the ones about Darien and and Keisha and Errold's Grove and k'Valdemar.  Then there's a stand-alone about Skif starting right before he was Chosen.  Oh, and one about Lavan Firestorm.  And the latest one is about Alberich.  I think that's all of them."

            Wingfire opened her mouth to ask another question just as Earthlight reentered the clearing.  Immediately, everyone's attention was on her.  She stopped next to the gryphons and surveyed the little gathering for a moment before speaking.

            "I've come back with good news."  She caught Emily and Tom's gaze.  "I've told the council about you, and they've agreed to offer you the protection and brotherhood of the Vale, if that is what you'd like.  They've agreed to let you take the oath and become wing-sibs."

            "What?  Sight-unseen?  You guys don't know anything about us!  What reason could you possibly have for even wanting us to become wing-sibs, and how the hell did the council _agree to it?"  _

            Emily caught Tom's arm before he could continue.  She pulled him a few feet away and spoke to him in a low voice.

            "Do we really have any other options here?  Look, you're the one who said we should go with this for the time being.  Despite our rather warm welcome, we both know how rare it is for Tayledras to offer outsiders this kind of status.  I think we should take them up on it, at least until we find out what the hell is going on."

            "I know, it's just so... weird.  I feel like I should be waking up any second."

            "I know how you feel."

            Tom cleared his throat as he and Emily turned back to the rest of the group.

            "Uh, sorry about that.  It's just a little hard to take in."

            Earthlight smiled acceptingly at him. 

            "Of course.  This has been a long day for all of us."

            "Well, hopefully, we'll be able to figure out what's going on," Emily spoke up.  "We've decided to accept your offer.  We're very honored that you've asked us to become wing-sibs, and we hope we do the title justice."

            Striihl chuckled good-naturedly.  "That was a pretty speech, youngling.  We'll make a diplomat of you yet."  Emily shot him a wry glance and shrugged.  "Anyway," he continued, "You will not be allowed to enter the Vale until you have taken the oath.  Until then, this _ekele should be fine for them to stay in.  It's not being used for anything else, Earthlight?"_

            "No, they can stay here.  Preparations for the ceremony should only take a few days, at most.  If someone stays with them, they will be quite safe."

            Sunsong stepped forward.  He'd been rather quiet up to this point.  "I'll stay with them.  We won't really have time for lessons anyway, with all the preparations being made."

            Earthlight nodded.  "Good, that takes care of that.  Now, I have to return to the Vale to inform the elders of your decision – they'll let the rest of the council know.  Oh, and I'll arrange for some clothing and such to be brought here to the _ekele."_

            "I'll help you," said Wingfire.  

            Earthlight nodded.  "Well then… Sunsong will help you two get settled, and Wingfire will be back soon with things for you.  We'll keep you informed about the ceremony."

            "Thank you," Emily said politely.

            With that, Earthlight left with Wingfire and Waternight, and the gryphons sprang into the air and flew off in the same direction, leaving Tom and Emily in the clearing with Sunsong. 

            Emily looked at the mage, really _looked_ at him, for the first time since he had entered the clearing.  He appeared to be close to her own age, probably a few years older.  He was the same height as Tom, and built similarly.          

            _And in damn good shape… Emily thought appreciatively as she took in the mage's toned body and muscles.  _

            His hair was pure white, and currently pulled back in a simple braid that hung to his waist.  He had a handsome face.  His eyes were ice-blue, framed by a pair of arched white eyebrows.  A straight nose led down to a fine mouth.  All in all –

            _Hot damn… that is one fine hunk of man right there.  _

            And that very man had just turned to her and Tom, and appeared to be about to speak. 

            "Well, there's no use in standing around here, waiting to catch a chill.  Let's go back up into the _ekele and you can get settled."_

*                                  *                                  *

            "I can't believe this is happening."

            Tom looked up from fastening a feathered and beaded leather wrist cuff.  Emily was retying the waistband of her shorts.  They'd spent the last three days in the empty _ekele_, but the clothing they'd arrived in had only just been returned to them, clean and dry.  Apparently, they were expected to wear that clothing for the Oathtaking, to represent that they were foreigners.  They were given wrist cuffs, necklaces, and headbands, all beaded and feathered, to wear as well, to represent their new Wingbrother status.  Wingfire had brought the ornaments to them with an amused smile.  It was tradition for an outsider taking the Oath to wear beaded and feathered braids at their temples, she had told them, but that their lack of hair made that somewhat improbable.  Now, the night of the Oathtaking had arrived.  Tom and Emily stood in the sleeping chamber of the _ekele_, waiting for Earthlight to come fetch them.  Tom looked at Emily's face and saw the barely concealed nervousness.

            "I know," he said.  "I mean, we're about to become _Hawkbrothers_.  We'll be Tom and Emily k'whatever."

            "K'Vayas," Emily corrected.

            "Right, yeah."

            A knock came from outside the room.  It was time.  The two friends looked at each other.

            "You ready?"  Emily asked.

            "You bet."

            They exited the room and found Earthlight waiting for them.  She said nothing, but the look she gave them was so full of encouragement that they each felt some of their anxiety melt away.  The mage turned and descended from the _ekele_, and they followed. 

            Wingfire, Waternight, and Sunsong were all waiting in the clearing under the treehouse.  All of the Hawkbrothers were dressed exquisitely.  Up until now, Tom and Emily had only seen them in scout garb, and had seen nothing of the famed flamboyancy and artistry of Tayledras clothing.  Now, though, all four were dressed in exotic robes made of what looked like fine silks and velvets and gossamers.  They hardly looked human in those robes, and more like spirits or gods.  Emily suddenly felt very underdressed.

            Sunsong joined Earthlight in front of Tom and Emily, and the two scouts fell in behind them, so that they were all walking towards the Vale in two-by-two-by-two formation.  They walked in silence, giving Tom and Emily time to become nervous all over again. 

            To distract herself, Emily found herself watching Sunsong's back as he moved gracefully ahead of her.  The young mage had stayed with her and Tom in the _ekele while preparations for the Oathtaking were made.  He had been friendly and interesting to talk to – and the three of them had talked a lot, as there hadn't been much else to do. He had told them about himself and about their other rescuers, and they had told him about their home and of themselves as well.  He was 24, it turned out, and three years younger than Wingfire.  Waternight was 25. It was anyone's guess as to how old Earthlight was.  Tayledras tended to live very long lives.  Over the past three days, as she got to know him, Emily had developed quite a crush on Sunsong.  ___

_            And why not?  He's intelligent, interesting, nice – and hot as hell.  Besides, I crush on, like, everyone, so I know how to keep them in perspective.  They're fun, but I won't be crushed if nothing comes of it.  Which it won't.  Nothing ever does.  Oh well… they're fun while they last._  Silently heaving a sigh of resignation, Emily contented herself with enjoying the way the mage's body moved with grace and ease, the way his muscles shifted beneath the sensuous material of his robes. 

            Tom, meanwhile, was also thinking about one of their hosts.  He and Emily had been mostly in contact with Sunsong for the past few days, but Wingfire had stopped by several times to bring food and conversation.  Waternight had accompanied her twice, but he'd never come by himself.  He'd seemed… not nervous exactly, but tense in the presence of the teens.  Tom had noticed the handsome scout immediately, and had caught Waternight sneaking tentative and fleeting looks at him several times.  It wasn't much, but it allowed a flicker of hope to kindle next to the acute interest that Tom had in the scout.  If only he weren't so damn skittish…

            Darkness had settled by the time the small party reached the Vale entrance, sneaking up on them swiftly so that Emily was a little bit surprised when she noticed the soft glow of lanterns on either side of what appeared to be a path between two normal, medium sized boulders creeping with moss.  Earthlight and Sunsong did not hesitate at the entrance, but walked right through, leaving Tom and Emily little choice but to follow.  The moment they passed between the stones, Emily felt an odd sensation wash over her, like she was dipping herself in carbonation that skittered and danced across her skin.  She glanced at Tom in awe, and met his wide-eyed gaze.  He felt it too.  

            As the group passed into the Vale, they were joined by more Tayledras.  With every step, the number of people grew, until they were surrounded by innumerable men and women, each one dressed finely and exotically.  The darkness hid most of the Vale from view, but Emily caught glimpses of shapes and shadows outside the glow of the lanterns that were spaced regularly along their path.  Night did nothing, however, to prevent a feeling of unease to creep up Emily's spine.  In confusion, she looked around, but saw nothing but face after unfamiliar face.  The feeling grew, welling up inside her with a distinct flavor of suspicion and distrust.  With a start, an inkling of the cause came to her, and she started to look closer at the faces traveling along side of her.  Some showed eager interest, most were carefully neutral, but some… some showed poorly concealed suspicion and unease.  Unused to such sensations, Emily was confused and alarmed by the feeling that welled inside her, yet was clearly not her own.  She shivered and reached for Tom's hand, grasping it tightly.  The feelings immediately stopped.  Tom glanced at her and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

            At long last, the group entered a sparse, brightly lit clearing, inhabited by a tall spire.  It looked to be of marble or quartz or some other translucent rock, but it glowed warmly and seemed to almost pulse, as if it were alive.  Tom and Emily stared up at it in amazement.

            "It's a heartstone…" Tom breathed.  He couldn't take his eyes from it.  It seemed to draw him in – only Emily's hand in his grounded him and kept him from falling into the energy the heartstone exuded.  He felt a squeeze on his hand and succeeded in tearing his eyes from the pillar and focusing them on an elderly man with a noble stature.  He was wrinkled and wizened, yet his eyes were sharp and intelligent.  He wore an intricately embroidered brocade surcoat that reached to the ground, and his hair was full of ornaments.  He was the epitome of stateliness, yet he regarded Tom and Emily casually, and Tom realized that Sunsong and Earthlight had stepped to the sides.

            The clearing was silent, and thick with anticipation.  After regarding the teens for a moment, the elder held his hands up before him, and Tom and Emily found themselves looking through a bluish mist.  Emily's eyes widened for a moment as she remembered some of the details of Elspeth's Oathtaking – this was the Truth Spell they were under.  

            The man lowered his hands, then once again looked at Tom and Emily casually.

            "Do you bring any ill-intent into this Vale?" He asked the question in the same tone of voice one would expect a question about the weather would come in.  The two friends answered in unison.

            "No."

            "Is it your wish to be made a brother of this Clan?"

            As soon as he asked the question, a wave of yearning rushed through Emily's body, startling her with its intensity, and she answered somewhat more forcefully than she intended.

            "_Yes," she said.  Tom echoed her response._

            The elder smiled slightly at her, then breathed deeply before continuing.  "Hear, then, the privileges of brotherhood: to come and go freely within all lands held by Tayledras k'Vayas; to call upon your brothers in time of need; to ask of us teaching; to make your home among us.  Hear also the responsibilities of brotherhood: to keep the secrets of the Clan; to neither bring nor lead strangers among us; to keep our lands and guard them as we do; to answer to our need if no other oath prevents; to teach when it is asked of you, aid when it is asked of you, give shelter and succor to your brothers of the Clan, of Tayledras, and of Shin'a'in.  Can you be bound to these conditions?"

            Again, the friends answered in unison.  "Yes."

            The elder now became all seriousness.  "Then there is another vow you must make.  But it is a vow that must not be taken in ignorance.  So watch, and listen, and heed."

            A great ball of white mist rose up from the ground between Tom and Emily and the elder.  The teens watched as the history of the Kaled'a'in and the sundering of the clans played out before them.  They watched and listened at the earth seemed to drop away from their feet and be transformed into an endless void of starry night, and the voice of the Star Eyed echoed in their minds, repeating the pledge she had demanded of the separated peoples, to be guardians of the land that had been twisted and perverted by rampant magic and storms of wild energy, to use the power she gifted them with to cleanse that land and make it whole again.  Then the mist faded and Tom and Emily came back to themselves in time to hear the elder continue with the ceremony.

            "This is the last oath you must swear – that you will aid your brothers of the Clan in their duty, as your own oaths permit – and that _never will you use what is taught you here for the sake of your own power, pride, and status.  Do you so swear?"_

            "We do," they assented.

            With their declaration, the glow of the Truth Spell faded.  The elder relaxed his posture slightly, though when he spoke, it was still with formality. 

            "Then I, Darkfall, elder and cofounder of k'Vayas, and the rest of the Vale here present, gladly accept your oaths, and welcome you into the Vale.  I give you the names of Tom and Emily k'Vayas, to use where you will."

            With those closing words, Darkfall smiled warmly and welcomingly at them, and discreetly stepped back to allow a swarm of people to envelope the two newest members of the Tayledras Clan k'Vayas.  The group consisted mainly of youngsters and teenagers who were eager to learn all about their outlandish Wingsibs, but hadn't yet learned tactful restraint.  Tom and Emily grinned at the curious faces that surrounded them.  But before they had a chance to be barraged with questions, Wingfire plowed her way through the crowd and planted herself at the friends' side.  Grinning openly, eyes twinkling with merriment and a hint of mischief, she seized them both by the arm.

            "And now," she said laughingly,  "It's time for the _party_."


End file.
